Man falls to death after stealing iPhone and gold chain from friend's HDB residence
SINGAPORE — He broke into his friend’s HDB residence to steal his belongings, but lost his footing as he tried to leave using a wooden plank from the air-con ledge to the common corridor, and fell to his death.
Nordin Sirajuddin, 25, was ruled by state coroner Kamala Ponnampalam on Friday (26 April) to have died by “unfortunate misadventure”, after he was discovered motionless on the ground floor of Block 512C Yishun Street 51 in the early hours of 9 November 2018.
He was pronounced dead at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, and forensic pathologist Dr Ooi Li Yin certified the cause of death as multiple injuries which were consistent with those sustained in a fall from a height.
Planned to steal from friend
According to police investigations, Nordin had planned to steal belongings from his friend, Lim Wee Khuan, who lived in an apartment at the Yishun HDB block.
He told his eldest brother Shahfiee of his plan on the evening of 8 November 2018, but was initially dissuaded from carrying out his plan. However, later that night, he approached his brother again and asked him to drive him to Lim’s residence. Shahfiee obliged, and Nordin picked up two wooden planks next to the lift landing of his Punggol Drive residence before leaving.
They reached Yishun at around 4am on 9 November, and Nordin took the planks along with him, telling Shahfiee that he would take “a while”. Shahfiee stayed in his car.
Between 5.50am and 6.01am, Shahfiee called Nordin three times, but Nordin did not pick up the calls. Shahfiee then searched for his brother, and found him lying on the drain cover near a grass patch on the ground floor of Block 512C.
Placed wooden plank from corridor to aircon ledge
It is believed that Nordin had positioned a 1.82m-long wooden plank across the gap between the common corridor parapet and the aircon ledge outside Lim’s unit and used the wooden plank to walk across to the residence.
He successfully entered into Lim's residence and took at least one white iPhone 6 and a gold chain. It is believed that, as he was attempting to walk across the same wooden plank towards the parapet after stealing his friend’s belongings, he lost his footing and fell from height.
Nordin is linked with assisting unlicensed moneylender offences and cheating offences. He also had pending charges for offences relating to consumption of controlled drugs, housebreaking by night and theft in dwelling. Those offences were fixed for further mention on 19 November 2018.
“Based on the evidence gathered, there is no basis to suspect foul play,” said state coroner Ponnampalam.
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