I have been living in my 10th Floor Condominium for the past 10 years and I always thought of it as a safe haven from a dangerous and cruel world out there. My unit has been broken into once but at that time, not much was stolen from me since I didn’t have many valuable assets.

Recently there have been a couple of cases of burglary and one happened right opposite my unit. Nothing much was stolen since the owner of that unit has already moved out. My wife then started to feel unsafe about our unit as we have acquired many valuable things since our marriage last year. She kept asking me to fix an alarm or tighten the security but I kept delaying it. I guess I never thought it would happen to us.

On Wednesday (14/11/07) I received a call from my mum as I was leaving office. She asked in a hurried voice if I had locked my door and I answered that I definitely did. I suspected that something was wrong immediately. My mum then proceeded to tell me that my unit has been unlocked and broken into.

I was stunned, my mind quickly raced through all the valuables that my wife and I have and the thought of it stolen gave me a very uneasy feeling in my stomach. I felt sick to death. I got into my car and raced home like a madman. I called my wife and told her what had happened and I could hear that she was very sad as well. I had to pick my wife and baby at my in-laws house first and when my wife got into the car, she was already tearing. I felt really angry, sad and bitter.

As I drove into my Condominium, I could see a Police car parked in the compound as well as many of the residence at the car park area talking about the robbery. I found out that not only my unit has been broken into, but 2 other units have also been robbed. I went straight up to my unit and was met by my mum and a few police officers.

Living room and collectibles still intact

 My living room was still very intact and nothing much has been overturned. The first thing I notice was my 4 month old projector was stolen. That is my single most costly appliance in my house and I saved and yearned for it for almost 3 years before I could buy it. And now it was gone.

4 month old Panasonic PT-AX100 Projector gone!

I walked into my master bedroom with my wife to find that the whole place was ransacked. Clothes were all on the floor, our empty boxes of watches were strewn on the bed and her dressing table has been turned upside down.

Ransacked master bedroom

We quickly scanned the place and checked if our passports were still around as well as our other important documents. Thankfully they weren’t taken. Our watches, an Omega, Tissot and Seiko watch were all taken; my wife earrings, chains and other jewellery were also gone. We lost some US dollars as well as some Singapore Dollars.

Empty boxes of watches; our wedding gifts

Ransacked dressing table

I proceeded to the room where I kept my 2nd most valuable items which were my Digital SLR and lenses. It was definitely God’s intervention when I actually took both my Digital SLR’s with me for servicing that day because of an upcoming job. Usually they would be at home lying in the dry cabinet.

The room where I kept my cameras

So both cameras were safe with me and the thief didn’t bother about my external flash or my other lenses although they did open my dry cabinet to see what was inside.

Opened dry cabinet and lenses on the table

The two other rooms in my Condominium was not ransacked that much. I guess the thieves knew that all the valuables would be in the master bedroom. The Police then took my statement and check to see if they could retrieve any fingerprints. Many of the Condo occupants were also around and they told us that the thieves have been identified as one Chinese man and an Indian man. One of the units that were broken into had occupants in them. The thieves broke into the unit and one man held the maid and a little boy hostage while the other man when and ransack the master bedroom. All this time, the mother of the little boy was in the shower and she also had a baby in the cot. When the mother came out, the thief put a sharp object to her baby’s throat and told her not to scream. They then got away with all their valuables as well.

God was certainly protecting my wife and me that day as she actually wanted to stay home that day and not go to her parents’ house. It would have definitely been a traumatic experience for her if she gone through what the other victim went through.

So that is basically what happened and now the Police are trying to nab the thieves. I hope they find them and teach them a good lesson. Until then, I have certainly learned my lesson and will be putting up an electric gate soon. Future thieves beware! You might just end up electrocuted in front of my doorstep!