A pair of Chinese tourists who climbed a fence to sneak into a Buddhist temple in Balestier and used improvised fishing tools to steal about $300 from a donation box were each sentenced to 14 months’ jail on Nov 5.
The offenders, 50-year-old Liao Quanwan, and 43-year-old Liao Yongzhan, pleaded guilty to one charge of house-breaking and one charge of attempted house-breaking.
According to court documents, the two men had met and become friends in China. They visited Singapore with a tour group in March to gamble and commit theft, as they believed Singapore was an affluent country.
The pair also brought with them improvised fishing tools made from string and adhesive tape, designed to fish money out of donation box slots.
They decided to steal from Burmese Buddhist Temple, located along Tai Gin Road in the Balestier area.
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Pair steals from temple, flees to China
Between about 1.15am and 4.30am on April 2, the two men climbed over the temple’s fence and entered the compound, before using their improvised tools to retrieve about $300 from the donation boxes.
During the break-in, one of the temple’s Buddhist lecturers happened to walk past and caught the pair red-handed. He shouted at them to stop, prompting the men to climb over the temple’s fence and flee the scene.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS
After escaping from the temple, the pair discarded their tools into a drain before taking a taxi back to their hotel.
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