SINGAPORE \u2013 The landed property near MacRitchie Reservoir targeted by a balaclava-wearing intruder was not the only one broken into, with police revealing that a similar incident had occurred just days earlier.<\/p>\n
On Feb 21, <\/p>\n a man broke into a home in Marigold Drive<\/p>\n <\/a> but left when an occupant screamed. Police said a separate incident had occurred just days earlier. <\/p>\n \u201cOn Feb 17, at about 7.50pm, the police received a call for assistance at a residential estate along Taman Permata.<\/p>\n \u201cPreliminary investigations revealed that an individual had allegedly entered a residential premise without permission and had left prior to police\u2019s arrival,\u201d a spokesman said, adding that efforts to trace the suspect are under way.<\/p>\n The two homes are about a four-minute drive from each other near Upper Thomson Road and next to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. <\/p>\n Amanda (not her real name), who has lived in her Marigold Drive home for 40 years, said the balaclava-wearing intruder who broke into her house was brazen because there were obvious signs that people were in.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Straits Times in her home on Feb 23, she said some of the lights in her multi-storey house, which backs onto a forested area in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, were turned on at the time. <\/p>\n She said her 34-year-old female tenant, who rents a room on the ground floor at the front of the house, was the one who spotted the intruder. <\/p>\n Amanda, who was on the second floor at the time with her helper, said she heard a scream from her tenant at around 9.30pm.<\/p>\n She rushed down to find her tenant pointing towards the back of the house, which leads to the forest. The backdoor was ajar, with signs that it had been tampered with. <\/p>\n Amanda said the man, who was wearing a black balaclava, hat, long-sleeved shirt and trousers, did not get anything from her home. <\/p>\n \u201cThey are getting so daring. You typically hear of burglars trying to pick houses that are empty to avoid home owners. But the lights in my house were turned on and he still decided to target us,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Later that night, five Special Operations Command police vehicles were spotted in Upper Thomson Road, but the intruder was not found. <\/p>\n Amanda said that while she had read reports of similar incidents taking place over the past two years, she was shocked that it happened to her at 9.30pm, when many of her neighbours were still awake. <\/p>\n Her home is one of around 11 in Marigold Drive that backs onto the adjoining forested area in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. <\/p>\n She said she was told by police that there was a separate incident earlier. Some of the homes in Taman Permata also border the same dense forested area. <\/p>\n Amanda\u2019s house borders Marigold Drive and the dense vegetation of MacRitchie Reservoir, with clearings on either side. Amanda said it is about 600m to the park\u2019s jogging trails. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ANDREW JAMES WONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The incidents mirror <\/p>\n a spate of break-ins at landed properties in 2024<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>