Man, dressed as food delivery rider, allegedly steals 4 orders from Havelock hawker stall, police investigating

A hawker stall in Havelock lodged a police report after a man, donning an all-black outfit and a helmet, allegedly stole four delivery orders while pretending to be a food delivery rider on Jun. 28.

According to Shin Min Daily News, the police report was lodged by OK Chicken Rice and Humfull Prawan Laksa, located at Block 51 Havelock Road.

In response to Shin Min's queries, the Singapore Police Force confirmed that a report was lodged, and investigations were ongoing.

Man's deeds caught on camera

On Jun. 30, OK Chicken Rice released a statement on its Facebook page regarding the incident.

The stall also published a clip from its CCTV camera, which captured the man's alleged deeds.

According to the footage, the man in black arrived at the stall at around 12:06pm on Jun. 28, carrying a phone in his right hand.

At the time, two men and a foodpanda food delivery rider were also standing in front of the stall, presumably waiting for their orders.

Later on, the man in black began checking the bags of deliveries stacked on a table in front of the stall.

He was also seen pacing back and forth around the table while glancing over at the stall twice.

Eventually, after looking around him and checking his phone, the man in black picked up a bag of deliveries on one side of the table and walked away.

Incident occurred during peak hours

Speaking to Shin Min, a stall assistant at OK Chicken Rice, named Hakim (transliteration), shared that the incident took place during peak lunch hours, when the stall was "very busy" with walk-in and delivery orders.

As the stall assistants were preoccupied, food delivery riders would usually check the details of the orders when picking up the meals.

On the day of the incident, the stall placed 16 prepared meals in four plastic bags on a table in front of the stall, according to Hakim.

"At the time, we did not check [the man in black]. We only found out that a delivery order had gone missing after a food delivery rider told the stall that they could not locate their order," recounted Hakim.

Caused delays to subsequent orders, stall assistant got scolded

After checking the CCTV footage and realising that the order had been taken away, Hakim alerted his supervisor, who asked him to replace the order, Shin Min reported Hakim as saying.

Hakim said he spent over 30 minutes rectifying the issue, including re-preparing the meals that went missing.

"It caused a delay to all our subsequent orders, and there were six or seven food delivery riders, as well as several diners, waiting for their orders at the scene. All of them were unhappy, and I was scolded," lamented Hakim.

Following the incident, the stall would be handing over all delivery orders to food delivery riders at the cashier, said Hakim.

Caused inconvenience to delivery riders, customers, & stalls

In its Facebook post, OK Chicken Rice denounced those "masquerading as [food delivery] riders and stealing food" from hawker stalls.

Such actions caused inconvenience to many, including actual food delivery riders who were unable to locate their delivery orders, and customers who had to wait longer for their meals, said OK Chicken Rice.

Furthermore, the stall's employees would get scolded for the "missing order" and would need to spend time and effort identifying the issue and replacing the order.

OK Chicken Rice said it would still like to believe that those stealing food orders were doing so "merely out of necessity" and did not harbour "malicious or mischievous intent".

The stall also made an appeal to such individuals, stating:

"If you're going through a tough time and need a meal, please don't hesitate to reach out, we'll be more than happy to provide you with food.

If you're looking for work, feel free to contact us as well. We'd love to explore how we can support you with a job opportunity."

Top images via Google Maps & OK Chicken Rice/Facebook