A man with a uniform fetish stole a police officer's jacket as he was attending to a traffic collision.
In addition, he stole a bag from a police car while the officer was handling a case.
Tuesday, 51-year-old Lam Seng Yip pled guilty to two charges of stealing (Dec 27).
The court heard that on September 20, 2019, a traffic police officer responded to an accident at the intersection of Buangkok Green Road and Yio Chu Kang Road.
He stopped his motorcycle in front of Block 965, Hougang Avenue 9, and placed his traffic police jacket on top of his motorcycle.
Lam was passing by when he observed the unattended motorbike and jacket. Half an hour later, he returned to the accident scene and parked his car along a neighboring road.
He stole the jacket, which had a name tag and a sergeant rank epaulette and was worth around S$140.
The traffic officer noticed Lam acting suspiciously on the motorbike and pursued him.
Lam fled, entered his vehicle, and fled with the jacket. Later, he took the name tag, rank, and emblems from the jacket and discarded them.
Lam was detained on September 20, 2019 in a Hougang HDB loading and unloading port. His jacket was confiscated.
On June 24, 2022, another police officer drove her police fast response car to a parking lot in front of Block 171, Woodlands Street 11 in order to respond to an incident.
Lam saw that the vehicle's windows were rolled down when he encountered it. In the rear seat was a ground response force bag.
Lam unlocked the door, grabbed the bag, and fled as far as possible. He then booked a Grab vehicle and returned home, where he checked the contents of the bag.
It included a wallet, a driver's license, credit cards, a police traffic wand, a police helmet, a police raincoat, a police vest, and a pair of fluorescent gloves.
The next day, Lam was detained at his residence, where the stolen things were recovered.
According to a report from the Institute of Mental Health, Lam was diagnosed with "sadomasochistic and fetishistic interests amounting to a paraphilic condition" after his first visit to IMH in December 2018.
The court heard that his primary fixation was uniforms of uniformed services such as the military and police.
The judge ordered an evaluation of Lam's eligibility for a mandatory treatment order and postponed the sentencing until February.
Theft is punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine, or both.
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