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Things You Should Know
 Blk 564 Ang
Mo Kio Ave 3.
On 21
Feb 2000, six people died when a three-room flat in Blk 564 Ang Mo Kio Ave
3 was razed by a huge fire. Less than two months later, the owner
renovated the flat and put it up for rent. Filipino expatriate Mr Antonio
and his sister, who were unaware of the tragedy at first, moved into the
flat on 15 Apr 2000 but left soon after when large brown stains began
appearing in the master bedroom.
Balmeg
Court, off Pasir Panjang Road
An 18-year-old youth, Mr Lee Poh Poh, drowned in a pool at Balmeg Court on
27 Feb 2000.
Choa Chu Kang Swimming
Complex
An
eight-year-old boy died after he was rescued from the wave pool at
the new Choa Chu Kang Swimming Complex on Saturday. CHUA Jun Jie
apparently slipped off to the pool while his parents were packing
to go home. He was found floating in the 1.6m deep section of the
pool, near a step-ladder. The child who did not know how to swim,
did not have the float he had used earlier. The wave pool, which
began operating on 1 May 2001, is part of the Choa Chu Kang Sports
and Fitness Centre which was launched by Prime Minister GOH Chok
Tong a week ago. (Straits Times 9 Jul 2001) (1)
Commodity-Trading Firms: Rogue firms
Beware of rogue commodity-trading firms that advertise Positions To Be
Filled in the local newspapers, but actually hoodwink job-seekers into
signing trading contracts with them. Click HERE for the story.
Counterfeit
Notes
More than 100 counterfeit
S$100 notes from the Ship series have surfaced and more may be still
circulating, police said on 10 Jun 2000. Most of the notes which have
surfaced have the same serial number: A/33/945618. They have turned up
in 80 separate investigations since 1999.
Fragrance Hotel
The body of a Bangladeshi
woman, believed to be murdered, was found in a Geylang hotel room on 23
Feb 2000. She had checked in alone at Fragrance Hotel in Lorong 6 the
previous week.
Fantasy
Island, SENTOSA
An
eight-year-old girl drowned when she was sucked under the rubber-foam
lining of an adventure ride when her raft overturned in March 2000.
Green Garden
Bar Restaurant in Serangoon Road
Tan Kim San, 48, and
his wife, Yap Kwee Chin, 47 - the owners of Green Garden Bar Restaurant in
Serangoon Road - were fined S$6500 each for their roles in a scam in which
cheap brandy was poured into Martell and Hennessy bottles, and then sold
as the genuine liquor. In a district court on 8 Nov 2000, Tan's brother
Tan Kim Teong admitted trying to defraud the Government of customs duties
and not paying GST by bottling the liquors illegally in the attic of the
restaurant since June last year. He was fined a total of S$61,500. The
racket was exposed when a team of customs officers raided the Green Garden
Restaurant on 23 Oct 2000 after a tip-off. (Straits Times 11 Nov 2000) Himiko Court (Ridgewood Close) A woman, believed to be a
foreigner, died more than two hours after she and another woman, also
believed to be a foreigner, were both found floating face-up in a swimming
pool at Himiko Court in Ridgewood Close, off Mount Sinai Drive on 30 Oct
2000. The other died in hospital on 31 Oct 2000. Their identities could not be confirmed. (Straits
Times 31 Oct 2000) The two women who drowned in
the swimming pool at Himiko Court in Ridgewood Close have been
identified as Indonesian maids Miss Sumiati Jarwan, 20, and Miss Sundari
Rusmin, 23. (Straits Times 1 Nov 2000)
Hotel New World
Hotel New World, located at the junction of
Serangoon Road and Owen Road, collapsed
on 15 Mar 1986 at about 11.25am. It was only 15 years old. The hotel
was a one-star budget hotel popular with Indian, Malaysian and Thai
tourists. The six-storey building which housed the hotel was called Lian
Yak Building. The Industrial and Commercial Bank occupied the ground
floor. The 67-room Hotel was earlier known as New Serangoon Hotel.
About
one hundred people were feared to be trapped under the rubble. Tunnelling experts from
Britain, Ireland and Japan who were involved in the construction of the
Mass Rapid Transit helped to rescue eight victims. A total of 17 people were rescued eventually, 33
people died and 104 others were injured.
A
Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the cause of the unprecedented
collapse found that under-designing, shoddy workmanship and corner cutting
by the contractors were responsible for the sudden collapse of the
building.
On its site now stands the Fortuna
Hotel.
Blk 652A Jurong West Street 61
An
11-month-old baby girl plunged 12 storeys to her death after
apparently climbing to an open grilleless bedroom window and wandering
onto the ledge outside it. The police found Preethi Udaysankar's
footprints on the ledge outside the flat at Block 652A in Jurong West
Street 61. (Straits
Times 24 May 2002) (3)
Le
Meridien Changi
A 54-year-old Canadian tourist drowned in a hotel swimming pool 26 Feb
2001 during an early-morning dip with his two young children, aged 11 and
7. Police confirmed that the accident happened at about 8.15am at Le
Meridien Changi, a hotel situated in Changi Village. The swimming pool is
on the 6th floor. There was no lifeguard on duty at the circular pool
which has a maximum depth of 2 metres. (Straits Times 27 Feb 2001)
Crossing
over to Malacca for a short holiday? Take note of the following:
A
Singaporean account manager and his Welsh colleague were robbed of
laptop computers worth S$14000 on the North-South Highway by a
group of men posing as Malaysian police. Mr Vincent Chua & his friend,
who work for Intel Technology Asia, were returning here from Malacca
around 3pm on 6 Jun 2000 when the robbery took place.
Newton Food
Centre
A
man who killed a drunk Australian IT consultant at Newton Food Centre on
Jan 3 this year was jailed for seven years on 7 Dec 2001 for manslaughter.
NAH Chee Khoon, 29, unemployed, had grabbed a knife from Mr Alyn James
Patch's hand and thrust it into Mr Patch's chest during a struggle. Mr
Patch, 39, a senior consultant with a computer company, died from a stab
wound to the left lung and chest.
Eight hawkers have been
suspended for touting so far in popular Newton Food Centre this year,
with three cases reported in July 2000. In the three recent cases,
Newton Grilled Seafood, Alliance Seafood and Soon Wah Fishball Kuay Teow
Mee were each slapped with suspensions of two to four weeks. The eight
stall-holders were taken to task for using strong-arm tactics, such as
pulling customers' hands and blocking their path.
Orchard Road
The number of cases of
pick-pocketing and shoplifting in Orchard Road has been falling
steadily. These are the most common crimes in the busy shopping belt of
Singapore. While 380 cases of pick-pocketing were reported in 1998, only
150 cases surfaced last year, marking a 60.5% decrease. One reason for
this was that the cops in Tanglin Police Division had managed to wipe
out the foreign gangs that struck during the Great Singapore Sale last
year. Fewer people were also caught for shoplifting - a 21.2% decrease,
from 659 cases in 1998 to 519 last year.
Parkview
Condominium
An
overseas student was found motionless in the deep end of the pool
at Parkview Condominium on 26 Jun 2002. Chinese national ZHANG
Yuhua,
22, was pronounced dead at the National University Hospital. (Straits
Times 28 Jun 2002) (H2)
Pinewood
Gardens condominium
Singaporean
Audrey ONG Pei Ling, 23, arrested after she was extradited here from
Australia, was yesterday charged in a district court with helping an
alleged killer erase murder evidence. The secretary's boss, Briton Michael
McCrae, is accused of killing his chauffeur, KHO Nai Guan, 46, and a
woman, identified as Chinese national LAN Ya Ming, 30. ONG faces one
charge of helping McCrae to clean up KHO's bloodstains on the floor of
McCrae's flat in Pinewood Gardens condominium in Balmoral Park. (Straits
Times 13 Nov 2002) (1)
Blk 17 Teck Whye Lane
A woman and her
4-month old baby boy fell to their deaths at Block 17 Teck Whye
Lane on the night of 18 Aug 2003. China national and Singapore
PR Madam Xu Jin Ying are believed to have fallen from the 12th
storey. Police are treating her son's death as murder and hers as
unnatural death. (Straits Times 20 Aug 2003 5)
Toa
Payoh Central, Block 179
Two
women, wearing identical red T-shirts, fell to their deaths from a
25-storey block of flats in Toa Payoh Central on 16 Apr 2001. Police found
the bodies of the two women, aged 20 and 31, at Blk 179 at about 6.30am.
It is not known if both women wore red deliberately. According to Chinese
superstition, the spirits of those who die wearing red will return to
haunt those who wronged them.
Yishun
Ring Road, Block 362
Police found the body of a badly-slashed woman in a Yishun flat in Block
362, Yishun Ring Road early on 22 Mar 2001, after a man called to say a
woman had been killed. The caller, a 51-year-old man, is in police custody
on suspicion of murdering ZHEN Xiujuan, a 31-year-old Chinese national.
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Things You Should Know
