Man caught on video stealing phone from counter of VivoCity shop

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Man caught on video stealing phone from counter of VivoCity shop

Screengrabs of CCTV footage showing a man stealing a phone from a shop counter in VivoCity.PHOTO: FACEBOOK/ NUR HAFIZAH ISMAIL

Published Mar 28, 2016, 11:24 am SGT
Nurulnadiah Md Noh

SINGAPORE - A few seconds was all it took for a man to steal a smartphone from the counter of a shop in VivoCity.

Sales associate Nurul Hafizah Ismail, 21, told The Straits Times that she had just arrived for her shift at writing instruments store Lamy on Friday (March 25) at around 2pm, and had placed her Samsung Note 5 smartphone on the counter.

Closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) footage posted on Facebook by her friend Nur Ameerah Aizat showed a bespectacled man carrying a black backpack looking at the products on display.

In the same footage, Ms Hafizah can be seen sitting in front of the cash register machine at the counter.

"The mall was crowded because it was a public holiday, and I did not notice the man at all," she said. "I got up to do some filing and then my phone was gone," she added.

Ms Hafizah went back to the counter about three minutes later, but only realised that her phone was missing five minutes after that.

She immediately called her manager, who then sent her screengrabs of the CCTV footage.

Her colleague, who had been attending to another customer, called the police.

Ms Hafizah, who has been working at the shop for about nine months, had just bought the smartphone on March 21.

Police confirmed that a report was made and that a case of dishonest misappropriation of property had occurred. Police are still investigating the incident.