S'pore man, 56, jailed for stealing 9 durians from Bukit Batok stall, tried to unplug CCTV, but still got caught

A 56-year-old Singaporean man stole nine Black Gold durians worth over S$250 from a fruit stall in Bukit Batok after it had closed for the day.

Sew Swee Chai thought his theft in September 2024 would go unnoticed as he assumed he had unplugged the stall's electric plugs in an attempt to switch off its CCTV cameras.

However, as Sew had unplugged the wrong plugs, his actions were, in fact, caught on camera and he was reported to the police.

Caught on CCTV stealing durians

Court documents seen by Mothership indicated that on the night of Sep. 6, 2024, Sew had been loitering outside the fruit stall at Block 276 Bukit Batok East Avenue 4, which was closed at the time.

As Sew was craving durians, he decided to steal some from the stall.

At around 9:09pm, Sew took a few minutes to survey the stall's exterior, before unplugging some of its electric plugs in a bid to disable the CCTV cameras.

He then walked in and perused the stall's items, before stealing nine "Black Gold" durians priced at S$27.78 each.

Sew put the durians into plastic bags and took them with him.

The next day, the stall assistant discovered there were durians missing and checked the CCTV footage, which showed Sew's theft.

Sew had unplugged the refrigerators instead.

The stall assistant lodged a police report the same night.

Sew was subsequently identified and traced by police.

Arrested after stealing religious amulets

About two weeks' after the durian theft, Sew was arrested after stealing three religious amulets worth S$180 at Fu Lu Shou Complex.

On Sep. 20, 2024, Sew had been perusing religious amulets at a ground floor stall there when he found some of them attractive and decided to steal them.

Sew hid two of them in his right palm before putting them in his left pocket.

Moments later, Sew pocketed another amulet, but the stall owner saw this.

The stall owner confronted Sew and asked him to take out the stolen items.

After confirming the amulets were from his stall, the stall owner called the police.

Sew tried to leave a few times before police arrived, but was stopped by the stall owner and another Fu Lu Shou staff.

Sew was arrested and released on bail the following day.

He has since made restitution for the stolen durians.

I hadn't been taking my medicine: Man

On Sep. 15, 2025, Sew pleaded guilty to two charges of theft.

Prosecutors said Sew was a repeat offender, and was previously jailed for burglary and theft, Shin Min Daily News reported.

In mitigation, Sew's lawyer noted that Sew has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

Sew also testified in court that he committed the crimes as he had not been taking his medication at the time, according to Shin Min.

The lawyer asked for a more lenient sentence for Sew, noting that he is now receiving treatment and has also made restitution for the stolen items.

Sew was sentenced to nine weeks' jail on Sep. 15.

Sew asked for a deferral of his sentence as his 80-year-old mother was recently diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, and he had to go to the hospital for medical follow-ups.

The judge granted Sew's request and deferred his sentence to start from Oct. 13.

Top image from Durian Buddy/Facebook & Canva