A uniform-obsessed man who stole a traffic police’s jacket and police duty bag pleaded guilty today to two counts of theft.

The 51-year-old defendant Lam Seng Yip stole the traffic police jacket while a traffic policeman was dealing with a traffic accident.

According to the facts of the case, the incident occurred on September 20, 2019. A traffic policeman was dealing with a traffic accident at the cross junction of Buangkok Green Road and Yio Chu Kang Road, so he parked his motorcycle in front of Block 965, Hougang Avenue 9, and put a traffic police jacket on the motorcycle.

The defendant was driving past the above location and saw the jacket on the motorcycle unattended. About half an hour later, he returned to the traffic accident scene again and parked his car nearby.

The accused stole jackets worth about $140, along with name tags and the police officer’s epaulettes.

Noticing the defendant’s suspicious behavior, the traffic police chased him, but the defendant escaped quickly and drove away in a car. He then threw away the jacket’s name tag, epaulettes and badge.

The accused was arrested at the unloading area of ​​a HDB flat in Hougang on the same day.

On June 24 this year, a female police officer drove a fast emergency police car to Block 171, Woodlands 11th Street to handle the case. The defendant just passed by and found that the windows of the police car had been pulled down at that time, and there was a patrol bag in the back seat of the car.

After the defendant opened the car door and stole the patrol bag, he immediately fled and took a privately-hired car home.

The police patrol bag contained items worth more than $380, including wallets, driver’s licenses, credit cards, traffic police batons, police caps, police raincoats, police vests and a pair of reflective gloves. The defendant was arrested at his home the next day.

Defendant was diagnosed with fetish in 2018

The defendant was diagnosed with a fetish in December 2018, and was primarily obsessed with uniforms of uniformed forces, such as military uniforms or police uniforms, according to the report from the Institute of Mental Health. Sentencing in the case was adjourned until February.

If convicted of theft, the accused could be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.