18 March 2007, Sunday - "Suay ka kao peh"!
"Piang!!!!"...... Our glass door in the dining hall came crashing down, David, who was still awake at around 3.30am was startled to hear such a loud crash of glass and thought that a window had fallen. He had immediately went downstairs to investigate.....
The burglars felt a pang of guilt and left Esmond his tie for work...
Esmond had just fallen asleep while I was sound asleep only to be woken up by David's incessant knocking on the bedroom door, calling out to Esmond in an urgent tone. We woke, only to hear that somebody had used a brick to break our glass door! (In fact, I thought I heard loud glass shattering noise in my sleep but I thought I was dreaming / Esmond had dropped something. Esmond had just fallen asleep and had heard the glass shattered and thought that somebody had dropped something too!)
Immediately, we knew somebody had broken into our home. We searched for a weapon (we didn't have any real weapons and had only managed to come up with an umbrella...) before proceeding downstairs to confront the invader(s).
Esmond shouted out and warned the invader(s) to "Get out now...!" before we cautiously made our steps down the stairs to the dining room. Esmond turned on the lights and we were greeted with a whole dining hall splattered with glass shards. No sight of the invader(s) within our home. The only proof of the invader(s) existence was the broken glass door, the damaged curtain and two bricks....The invader(s) had used the two bricks in our backyard to break into our house!
The two bricks used for the break in....
One of the bricks, hit the frame of the door to the garage and put a hole in the same door...
We surveyed the surroundings and Esmond realised that his bag was gone. His bag didn't contain much but notes and keys for his work. My camera was gone too! My Fuji Finepix S5000 bought at Harvey Norman, City Hall - Singapore for SGD599, which had took numerous good photos and captured thousands of memories had been stolen by scum(s)! And I had only used it the morning before when we went to support Roger and Ardy in their badminton competition at the Sleeman Centre! Now my camera and all those pictures of the two guys in action are gone!
The white chair in which my camera was "sitting in", covered with my cap and a bottle of Sprite. I reminded myself to bring the camera up to the room before I went to bed but I was too tired and forgot about it... (That'll teach me....)
We also noticed that the burglar(s) had quietly, systematically removed the broken wooden shelf from the front of the glass door so that it won't hinder his escape. He had also placed markers (Esmond's slippers and another brick) in the backyard to lead him to his exit route, just in case he panicked and forgot his way out!
Esmond's slippers pain stakingly placed to guide the burglar(s) to their escape route, the broken wooden shelf that the burglar(s) had moved from the cement floor in front of the glass door to the grass patch....
The slippers (greying dot on the centre left of the photo) and the red brick (brownish red dot on the centre right of the photo) leading the burglar(s) fast escape out of the unit's back door...
Esmond called the police and his Group Security Division while I called the complex manager. He and his wife came right over to our unit, surveyed the area, contacted the "Glass guy" to come replace the glass door and lent us their broom so that we can clear up the dining room to avoid any injury to all.
We swept the shattered glass into a plastic bag and left them in the laundry. Meanwhile, the "Glass guy" arrived to replace the glass door at 4.30am! He was a very fast worker who knows his job. A few unscrewing and rescrewding here and there, pulling and yanking of some railings, knocking and dismantling, a new glass door is in place. All within half an hour to forty five minutes.
In fact, he arrived faster than the police! The police took 4 hours to come and they only arrived at 7.30am! By that time:
1) we had all finished clearing up and vacuuming the dining hall, kitchen, living room and stairs to rid of any glass shards remaining after the sweep,
2) Esmond and I had made a drive around the neighbourhood to see if the perpetrator(s)s had dumped his bag since there's nothing worthwhile in it,
3) Esmond had finished fiddling with his car's idle rev,
4) All 4 of us had gone back to bed to catch up with our sleep
only to have the phone ring again half an hour into our sleep. The police had finally arrived.
The police had also done neighbour checks and had got the Crime Scene Investigation unit (who will come either later today or tomorrow) to collect any available evidence from the scene of the crime... We've got a whole bag of shattered glass for them to go through....
Good luck going through the whole bag of glass shards CSI....
Lesson of the day:
1) Always lock your door and pull your curtains closed at night
2) Never leave any valuables in plain sight
3) Have weapons around the house just in case you need it
4) Have a powerful torch light within your reach
5) Have home and contents insurance
6) Some people are sick and desperate enough to trespass into a complex with a security gate, look into units, remove anything that's hindering their escape, mark their exit route, smash the glass door, grab the items, make a run for it while he / she knows that someone in the unit is still awake coz the light and music was still on
7) Things happen very fast - the burglar(s) probably took 2 seconds to grab the things and go
8) such events happen any time, anywhere under any circumstances, sometimes right under our noses.... (Esmond and Kelvin was watching Prison Break until 1.30am, Roger, Yenki and me were playing Chinese Checkers until 1.30am, David was Yenki's adviser and had gone back to his room to play games when we turn to bed for rest at 2am, I only fell asleep at 2.30am, Esmond only came to bed at 3am. The burglar may have been scouring the area and was quietly doing his stuff while each of us were going about our own stuff at the same time!).....
We are thankful that:
1) the burglar(s) just took the bag and the camera and didn't go for my wallet and mobile, didn't decide to come upstairs, hold us hostage and grab more things
2) not anyone of us were hurt (except financially)
3) that we have an onsite manager who came to us in the middle of the night, interrupting his sleep
4) that the Glass guy came very promptly to replace the glass door so we don't have to take turns to stand guard in the dining hall
After this incident, we are more appreciative of:
1) the security level in Singapore (throughout my nearly ten years in Singapore, I haven't experience a break in)
2) the efficiency of the Singapore Police force (the response time, the rate in which they solve crimes, their ability to track down perpetrators. QLD police have yet to capture or even "smell the trail" of the sex pervert(s) assaulting female joggers who go for their morning / evening runs in the park since 4th quarter last year, sex pervert(s) who break into people's home and sexually assaulted them - since the beginning of this year.... If these incidences happened in Singapore, I'm sure the pervert(s) would have been tracked, caught, caned, jailed by the end of last year. )
3) Window and door grills in SG, MY.
4) home and contents insurance (coz we didn't have any currently but are planning to have one soon....)
Hopefully:
1) the burglar(s) are caught, punished heavily (i doubt so... they'll probably get a slap on the wrist judging from the lame penalty system in AU) and our items returned (seriously doubt so coz I lost my mobile when I was in Uni 4 years back and they still have no trace of it....)
2) no more such incidences and our items are safe within our possession
We will:
1) keep all valuables out of sight
2) lock all doors, put a mahjong table against the glass door, draw the curtains shut every night
3) buy home and contents insurance
4) be more aware of our surroundings
This is definitely not a good start to a new year... Barely a month after our accident, we got burglared! Hopefully, these two instances are the only two Suay articles that I'll be writing for the rest of the year...
