A 62-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly stealing perfume bottles and trinkets valued at over $1,100 at Changi Airport.
The police said that they were notified after the items were found missing from four stores in the airport’s transit area on December 23, 2024.
When the woman visited the store and left without making any purchases, a store clerk noticed that she was behaving suspiciously.
After verifying that $1,121.60 worth of merchandise were missing, the store’s loss prevention officer reported the incident to the police.
The woman, an Indian national, was arrested by Airport Police Division officers before she could board her flight out of Singapore.
After the preliminary investigations, the police said that she allegedly took a variety of things by hiding them in her carry-on luggage after entering four different establishments.
Under the Shop Theft Awareness for Retailers initiative, the police work closely with businesses to analyze ways in which their stores are vulnerable to theft and come up with countermeasures.
Last year in August, the police revealed that shop theft accounted for 20.1 per cent, or 2,027, of all physical crime cases in the first half of 2024. According to the authority, 2024 was the third consecutive year when there was an increase in shop theft in the first six months of the year.
If convicted, she could be fined and jailed for up to seven years.
