Out on bail after his arrest in July 2019, a serial underwear thief flouted circuit breaker rules in order to look for bras and panties to steal.
On May 18, Lee Chee Kin pleaded guilty to ten charges relating to trespass, theft, dishonest misappropriation and unauthorised access to a debit card, and leaving his residence without reasonable excuse.
Another 14 charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.
Court documents show that the 39-year-old Singaporean's crime spree lasted about two years, committing the offence of trespassing onto another property at least 30 times.
Climbing into people's house to steal underwear
Starting in 2018, Lee would climb into different houses to steal female underwear sometimes trespassing onto a property multiple times.
He would do this whenever the urge arose and selected the bra and panties based on their appearance, using them for his own sexual gratification, according to court documents.
One household — the residence of an individual court documents label as A4 — had a total of ten bras and eight panties stolen over four occasions between November 2018 and March 2019.
Lee would climb over the back gate and enter the house, before leaving with underwear that belonged to two women.
Another victim, labelled A7, had 24 pieces of underwear — with a total value of S$1,000 — stolen from her backyard over four occasions from February 2019 to March 2019.
While a police raid on Lee's house in July 2019 recovered some of the stolen underwear, none of the women wanted the items back.
Court documents reveal that despite finding 106 bras and 41 panties in the raid, 93 bras and 25 panties are still unaccounted for.
Flouting circuit breaker
Lee was arrested on July 12, 2019, prior to the raid, but was out on bail in April 2020 when he once again had the urge to steal underwear.
On April 15, when Circuit Breaker measures were already in place, he left his house to look for bras and panties to steal.
According to court documents this reason "does not fall" under any of the activities prescribed under the Covid-19 regulations.
Lee once again trespassed on A4's property by climbing over the house's back gate at around 2:14am. He was not wearing a mask while doing so.
Additionally, Lee pleaded guilty to dishonestly misappropriating a man's debit card from May 23 to 25, 2019, which he had found at Ang Mo Kio MRT Station.
He had spent about S$91 on it, utilising the card's PayWave function.
Hopes to "do something good for society"
According to CNA, Lee's defence told the court that the panty thief's father had died in 2019, while his uncle had recently undergone surgery.
Both issues, they posited, had affected Lee who was remorseful for his actions.
Lee also said that he hoped to see a doctor and "do something good for society", reported CNA.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kwang Jia Min said that she would not object to a mandatory treatment order suitability report being called.
The judge then called for the report to be compiled.
Lee's sentencing will commence on Jun. 1.
For criminal trespass, Lee can be jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$500, or both.
For theft, he can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.
For breaching COVID-19 regulations, he can be jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
Top image from Fahad Waseem via Unsplash