A monkey in Punggol snatched a sling bag belonging to an elderly woman and climbed up a tree to unzip it to get to its loot.

A video of the incident was put up on the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook page on April 25.

The short 14-second video showed the monkey using its hands and mouth in an attempt to open a yellow tin believed to contain candy which it fished out, while perched on a branch and still holding on to the black bag.

According to the post, the incident took place in Punggol near the Sunrise Gateway and Sunrise Bridge.

The woman's bag was left on the bench before the monkey made away with it.

Monkey dropped items from tree eventually

According to a comment left on the post of the video, the monkey eventually returned all the items to the woman as it dropped them one by one from the tree top.

The last item that was dropped was the woman's handphone.

The comment by the person who posted the video also said: "Careful around monkey/ wild animals. Don’t carry food around or leave personal belongings unattended."

Monkey behaviour not rare

Such behaviour is not rare though.

Monkeys in Singapore's numerous parks and nature reserves have grown accustomed to people hiking with bags of food and drinks and have come to recognise these receptacles as sources of nourishment.

The monkeys can sometimes get aggressive as they approach humans in an attempt to snatch plastic bags, cups, and bags away from visitors.

They also can be seen waiting for visitors to discard trash that used to contain or hold food.

Some of the monkeys are even primed for a food grab whenever they hear the rustling of plastic bags, which they have come to associate with food being handled.