Woman who stole Samsung Note 9 phone left behind in Tampines Point toilet gets jail
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is seen during a product launch event in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., Aug 9, 2018. (Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
SINGAPORE: A woman who took a Samsung handphone left behind by another woman in a toilet was sentenced to a week's jail on Tuesday (Sep 3).
The court heard that the Samsung Note 9 phone, worth S$1,800, belonged to Loke Lai Har.
Ms Loke went to the women's toilet on the first floor at Tampines Point at 9.48pm on Oct 12 last year.
She entered the third cubicle and placed her phone on the tissue dispenser box.
However, she left the washroom without the device and realised that she had forgotten to take it only while walking towards a restaurant.
The accused, 36-year-old Fauziah Abdul Rahim, was working as a serving crew member at the nearby Captain Kim Restaurant.
She entered the washroom at around the same time as the victim, and saw the phone left unattended on top of the tissue dispenser after the victim left.
She took the phone and kept it inside the front pocket of her apron and went to work at the restaurant.
When Ms Loke rushed back to the toilet, she could not find her phone, and went to the building's security officer for help.
They viewed closed-circuit television footage and found that Fauziah was the only woman who had used the same washroom at around the time of the incident.
They also saw that she wore the staff uniform of Captain Kim Restaurant.
Ms Loke went to the restaurant manager, who confronted Fauziah about the phone. However, she denied taking it, said State Prosecuting Officer M Mariyappan.
A friend of the victim's called the police about the incident that very night.
Fauziah went home with the phone and was asked about it again the next day when she went to work.
Even though she kept quiet then, she later decided to admit to her actions and surrendered herself to the police on Oct 22, 10 days after the incident.
She returned the handphone, but not the SIM card, which she had disposed of earlier.
Fauziah pleaded guilty to one charge of dishonestly misappropriating the phone, and admitted that she had no intention of returning it to its owner.
For dishonest misappropriation, she could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.
