Bank robber nabbed in Bangkok amid Singaporean media buzz
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SINGAPORE - THE MAN WHO robbed a Standard Chartered Bank branch in Singapore’s Holland Village has been nabbed in Thailand after more than 72 hours on the run, police confirmed on Monday.
The man was arrested by the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok on Sunday.
According to Maj-General Apichart Suriboonya, who heads Thailand’s Interpol unit, the suspect is Canadian. He flew from Singapore to Thailand last Thursday, arriving at 17.08pm. On Sunday, he was arrested at noon at Boxpacker Hostel in Bangkok.
The rare bank robbery in Singapore sparked a social media debate on whether the country’s low crime rates made authorities and the population too complacent, questioned bank security and criticised police for not providing details of the incident.
The man stole 30,000 Singaporean dollars (Bt780,000) from the Standard Chartered branch, having slipped the teller a note saying he was armed, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
The teller pressed a silent alarm button and police arrived within minutes, but it was too late, said the source, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Standard Chartered said the bank had taken “immediate actions to further enhance” security. It declined to comment on the details of the robbery as investigations were ongoing.
“While there was no security guard present, our staff acted in accordance to protocols and in the best interests of our customers and our colleagues,” a bank spokeswoman said.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore urged banks to “learn from the recent incident and assess whether their security measures need to be enhanced”.
Local newspaper Straits Times said the last bank robbery in Singapore – by a man with a fruit knife – occurred in 2004.
Singapore police often appeal to the public for information, but did not release any CCTV footage of the latest bank robbery and did not answer Reuters requests for details on the robbery.
The police “didn’t even have the decency to issue a statement or conduct a briefing about the robbery ... stage fright???”, said Facebook user Erik Seeto.
Twitter user @Thefinnigans, summed up the robbery with a meme depicting a polite dialogue between a smiling teller and an elderly man. After the man says he wants to rob the bank, the teller asks whether he would like a transfer into his account, then they settle for notes.
Police have launched a major manhunt for the bank robber. The last high-profile manhunt in Singapore was in 2008, when Mas Selamat Kastari, the suspected leader of a radical Islamist group linked to the 2002 Bali bombings, shot to fame after escaping from the toilet of a detention centre.
