NEA responds to the impersonation of NEA officers

[MarrickG]

SINGAPORE - The National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a media statement issued today that it takes a serious view towards the recent incident where six men impersonated NEA officers and committed a daring heist.

The statement said: "NEA takes a serious view of the incident and will work with the Police to prevent such incidents from taking place."

"NEA will be reviewing our protocols to ensure that criminal elements cannot take advantage of our inspections and checks."

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Members of the public can be vigilant but noticing the uniforms of NEA officers.

NEA said those who are assigned the task of inspecting residential premises will be dressed in white uniforms bearing the NEA logo, blue trousers and a name tag. They usually work in pairs.

By protocol, a NEA officer should identify himself or herself to the owner or occupier of the premises by producing an authority card issued by NEA.

NEA advises that members of the public should verify the identity of any person who claims to be an NEA officer against the authority card before allowing the officer into their premises.

If in doubt, members of the public may call the 24-hour NEA hotline at 1800-CALL-NEA (1800-225-5632) for assistance to verify the identity of any person who claims to be an NEA officer.

Related story:

Most home safes easy to force open

SOME safes are made of thick walls of steel and fortified by concrete.

That makes them almost impossible to break into, said Mr Ho Lai Sung, 52, director of Grupp Marketing, which sells safes.

He added that ordinary metal drills and welding torches are useless against such safes.

"Only a concrete drill, the kind usually used for construction work, can penetrate through," said Mr Ho, who has been in the safe business for about 20 years.

But these are high-security vaults - which cost between $800 and $10,000 - and are less likely to be found in homes, said Mr Ho.

Most of the safes used in homes are of the low or mid-range variety.

These typically have thinner walls that are not reinforced by concrete. Their locking bolts are also less strongly secured.

When shown a photo of the two safes that the robbers had broken into, Mr Ho said the one on top looked like it was a low-security safe.

"The steel body is twisted very badly. This occurs only when the wall is thin and can be bent easily with some hand tools," he said.

To break into a safe, both its walls and its locking mechanism must be destroyed using tools such as crowbars, screwdrivers, chisels, hammers and electronic drills.

The other safe appeared to be of the mid-range type because of the thickness of the walls, he said.



This article was first published in The New Paper.

 

[saratogas]

I have told my parents never to open the door to any NEA or so call Government people unless We are informed about their plan visit...

Old folks just don't get it... once they heard "Zeng Fu Ren" they open the door, becos they are scare and worry that they may get into trouble if they don't cooperate.