Tuesday, September 04, 2007

NSF arrested for leaving camp with rifle, bullets

A 20-YEAR-OLD full-time National Serviceman left his camp on Sunday night with his assault rifle and several rounds of live ammunition, and sparked off a 20-hour manhunt.

Over 200 police officers combed the island before the drama finally ended in the heart of Orchard Road.

Corporal Dave Teo Ming was arrested after policemen tracked him down to the third floor of Orchard Cineleisure.

Ms Aisah Abdullah, a 46-year-old cashier at World of Sports on the second floor of Cineleisure said: 'At about 8pm, I saw men running up the escalator to the third floor. Soon more police arrived and they cordoned the whole floor for about an hour.'

Other witnesses said they saw a brief struggle outside the Nike Store. Police officers kept the commotion to minimum - even security guards at the shopping complex were kept unaware of the situation.

Corporal Teo still had the rifle on him when the police arrested him. It is believed to be a Singapore-made SAR-21 rifle, which is about 80cm long - or about the length of an umbrella.

Police would not say how he managed to conceal the weapon, but no gun shots were heard, said shoppers at Cineleisure.

According to Ministry of Defence and Police, the NSF trained as infantry man wth 1st Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment.

The first sign of trouble was when he discovered missing from the Mandai Hills Camp at 11.59pm on Sunday.

Ironically, his tour of duty was almost over. CPL Teo was due to complete his full-time NS stint next month.

The Singapore Armed Forces has strict regulations to account for arms and ammunition and it does so by making soldiers sign for weapons and counting every bullet that is issued.

Even empty bullet casings are recovered from the rifle range after practice firings.



-Courtesy of the Straits Times



This has by far got to be the most fascinating story of the year. He has my respect. May God bless his soul....

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