Singapore jails Chinese tourist who broke into luxury properties just days after arriving

A Chinese tourist who broke into a Sentosa resort suite and a Serangoon Gardens home within two days of his first arrival in Singapore was jailed for 44 months on Aug. 14.

Huang Xiaozong, 41, took S$105,750 (US$82,600) worth of jewelry and a watch in the two break-ins and had pleaded guilty on July 10 to two counts of housebreaking, CNA reported.

A third count of criminal trespass was taken into consideration at sentencing.

Huang arrived as a tourist on Dec. 5, 2025 and checked into a hotel in Little India.

It was his first time in the country, and court documents cited by CNA record that he "had thoughts of stealing things" to earn money after he "noticed that Singapore is very nice and rich." He researched which parts of the city were affluent and began looking for houses that appeared unoccupied.

On Dec. 6 he walked around Sentosa and came across a suite at Capella Singapore with its lights off and nobody inside. The occupant stayed there only from time to time and was overseas, The Straits Times reported.

Huang forced open a sliding door on the rear balcony and searched the unit.

He took a Chanel watch valued at S$30,000 (US$23,400), five rings worth S$25,000 and a gold necklace worth S$3,000 from a glass display cabinet in the living room and a wardrobe in the master bedroom.

He carried the items back to his hotel.

The theft went unnoticed until Dec. 8, when a housekeeper found footprints on the floor, the sofa moved and the display cabinet empty.

The night before, at about 8 p.m. on Dec. 7, Huang climbed over a metal gate into a darkened house in Serangoon Gardens.

He took S$47,750 (US$37,300) in jewelry from a bedroom dressing table, including two Tiffany & Co. wedding rings, diamond earrings and gold necklaces.

The owner returned about 40 minutes later to find the dressing table disturbed and items missing. Her husband called the police.

Huang climbed over the gate of another house in the estate the same evening but was spotted by a domestic helper who asked what he was doing there.

He answered in Mandarin, which she did not understand, then went back over the gate and left.

He returned to Little India before moving on Dec. 8 to the Harbour Ville Hotel on Kampong Bahru Road, where police traced him and arrested him that evening.

Officers seized items linked to the break-ins from his room.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yohanes Ng sought 45 to 49 months' jail, telling the court that Huang had specifically scouted homes he believed were empty, CNA reported.

Ng described the offending as transnational, noting that the first break-in came a day after Huang landed.

Defense lawyer Don Tan asked for 30 months, calling the offenses "amateurish" and drawing a distinction between his client and offenders who travel to Singapore with the intention of committing housebreaking.

Tan also said the victims' losses were limited because the stolen items were recovered.

Singapore police said in August 2024 that a surge in break-ins at landed properties near the Rail Corridor and Bukit Timah Road appeared to be the work of foreign syndicates made up of Chinese nationals, CNA reported at the time.

The suspects typically entered on social visit passes one or two days before offending and left the country quickly.

Ten cases recorded between June 1 and Aug. 4 that year involved S$3.85 million (US$3 million) in stolen property, of which about S$1.36 million was recovered.

Police logged 118 housebreaking cases in 2024, down from 135 in 2023, and 52 in the first half of 2025, a drop of 20% from the same period a year earlier.

Each count of housebreaking to commit theft carries a maximum of 10 years in jail and a fine.