Man trips and gets pinned down after theft at Clementi Mall, arrested for various offences

A man who allegedly stole from a store in The Clementi Mall on Thursday evening (Aug 9) had his escape attempt foiled by three other guys.

Stomper Quek witnessed the incident and said: "This happened on Level 5 of The Clementi Mall at 6.40pm yesterday.

"The man was caught stealing from Popular Bookstore. I went into the store and overheard staff telling the police that he had tried to steal a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5."

A video filmed by Quek shows three men, one of whom was wearing a Popular Bookstore shirt and a lanyard, pinning down the suspect.

(Story continues below video)

Said the Stomper: "I believe one of the men was a Popular Bookstore employee while the other two were passers-by.

"The suspect had tripped on a board (visible in the video) while running out of the store and got pinned down. He was struggling for over five minutes.

"The mall's security officers arrived and helped to pin down the man, and the police came within ten minutes."

In response to a Stomp query, the police said they were alerted to a case of shop theft at 3155 Commonwealth Avenue West at 6.42pm.

A 48-year-old man was arrested for theft in dwelling, fraudulent possession of property and suspected drug offences.

Police investigations are ongoing.

When contacted by Stomp, a spokesman for Popular Bookstore said: "As investigations for the case are still ongoing, POPULAR is unable to provide further comments on the case.

"We will, however, cooperate with the police and provide our retail and operation management resources, wherever necessary, to aid them in their investigations.

"Until further information and findings are released from the police, POPULAR will not be able to provide further details of the case to the public."