Suspected burglars entered the house on Holland Road via the construction site

SINGAPORE: The two foreign men who allegedly broke into a property in the Holland Road area on December 16 entered a house through an adjacent house under construction.

While one of them ransacked the house in Greenleaf View, the other was said to have stood guard outside.

On December 26, police officers took Chinese nationals Zhang Yongxiang, 52, and Feng Yunlong, 38, to the three-story property where two cars were parked.

The visit lasted about 20 minutes.

To the right of the house was the construction site of a semi-detached house.

According to a notice board at the site, planning permission was granted in June 2023 and construction is expected to be completed in July 2025.

Zhang arrived in a police car at 10:25 a.m. He was flanked by three police officers and handcuffed at his arms and ankles.

They went to the victim’s house and stopped in front of the construction site.

A police officer asked Zhang which unit he went to, to which he replied in Mandarin, “The one next door.”

They then walked toward the burglarized unit and stopped at the side gate before Zhang drove away in a police car.

About five minutes later, Feng arrived. He led the police to the construction site, but unlike Zhang, he kept his head bowed the entire time.

He stopped at the entrance to the site, pointed to a gap between a blue tarp and a wall and told officers in Mandarin: “We entered through this gap.”

ST understands that Zhang allegedly climbed into the victim’s house from the third floor of the construction site. Feng is believed to have been keeping a lookout outside the two units.

According to court documents, Zhang entered the property by pushing open a sliding window.

The duo stole a Cartier Roadster watch worth S$8,800 and a Casio Edifice watch worth $150.

Outside the home that was broken into, police officers took out a map and asked Feng how he left the house. Feng said they walked out of the property toward the main road and boarded a bus.

On December 16, the house was broken into around 9 p.m. while the owners were away. The victims reported the incident on December 18th.

Zhang and Feng were linked to another report of burglary and theft at a property on Zehnder Road in Buona Vista that was broken into during the day on Dec. 18, police said.

Police officials identified the duo after examining surveillance camera footage from the area.

They tracked her to a hotel in Joo Chiat and arrested her at around 6 p.m. on December 18.

In addition to the watches, police recovered a branded bag worth about $5,000, about $3,570 in cash and an assortment of jewelry.

Police said both properties had no burglar alarm systems, although the Greenleaf View home had surveillance cameras that aided the police investigation.

The doors and gates of the houses were locked at the time, police added.

On December 20, Zhang and Feng were each charged with burglary.

Feng told the court he wanted to plead guilty and would not hire a lawyer.

The couple is expected to face additional charges at their next court hearing on December 27.

Lorana, 42, a domestic helper who lives in a house two doors away from the affected unit, said her employer was not concerned even after the recent break-in.

She said they had CCTV around the property and police cars had been patrolling their area every night since the spate of home invasions in the nearby Bukit Sedap area in August.

“Sometimes I also see policemen with flashlights on the railway corridor at night,” she added.

Another Greenleaf View resident, who is in his 70s and declined to be named, said he wasn’t worried because he was always home. His house also has a burglar alarm system.

Police did not rule out that Zhang and Feng could be linked to the burglary syndicates active in Singapore in mid-2024.

It was previously reported that international crime syndicates broke into properties here and stole about $3.85 million from at least 10 homes between June and August.

The gangs mainly targeted homes in the Rail Corridor and Bukit Timah Road areas. At least one home on Windsor Park Road in the Upper Thomson area was also broken into.

In these cases, police arrested three Chinese nationals and sought information about another 14 who had left Singapore.

Anyone convicted of theft for burglary can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a fine. – The Straits Times/ANN