At least two 24-hour self-service laundromats in Singapore were hit by brazen thefts in one night, which saw wads of cash removed from the coin-exchange machines by a person dressed in black.

The two laundromats lost about S$3,000 in total as a result on Sunday, Apr. 14, Shin Min Daily News reported.

It took only about 50 seconds for the suspected thief to make away with the cash in one of the laundromats, using what appears to be a master or duplicate key.

Both laundromats, which are run by different operators, confirmed the alleged thief was not a staff.

Laundromats in Toa Payoh & Ang Mo Kio

The laundromat at Block 94 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh was hit at around 2:30am.

At about 3am in the same morning, the laundromat at Block 532 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 was also hit.

The operator of the Toa Payoh laundromat, surnamed Chen, aged 50, said she found out about the losses only on the next day on Apr. 15.

She lost more than S$1,000.

The operator of the laundromat in Ang Mo Kio, who declined to be named and also aged 50, said he checked out the machines at 2pm on Sunday and found it unusual that there were only a few banknotes in them.

He then checked the surveillance footage and found out a theft had occurred.

He lost about S$1,533.

He was the one who told the Chinese press that laundromats in Toa Payoh and Marsiling were hit one after another.

Based on the surveillance footage, it appeared the thefts were committed by the same person who was dressed in a black t-shirt and black shorts, while wearing a black cap, face mask, and silicon gloves.

According to Shin Min, a man has been arrested in relation to both incidents, and police investigations are ongoing.

No idea what key was used

The operators of both laundromats said they believed the coin-exchange machines were opened using different keys.

But they had no clue how the thief did it as both of them had never lost their keys to the machines before.

It was reported that the laundromat coin-exchange machines make use of laser-cut keys, which are designed to offer better security than traditional keys.

Laser-cut keys look different from normal keys as the key grooves are etched into the centre of the key.

The duplication process is also usually costlier than traditional keys.

Both laundromat operators have since put up new physical locks to prevent further incidents of a similar nature.

Top photos via Shin Min Daily News