Singapore kidnapping timeline: kidnappers found, ransom recovered

Originally published on January 10, 2014Singapore police have arrested two men who were responsible for the high profile kidnapping of 79-year-old Ng Lai Poh, the mother of Sheng Siong supermarket chief executive Lim Hock Chee.At 11:00 a.m. on January 8, Madam Ng Lai Poh was walking along Hougang Avenue 8 after having breakfast at a nearby market, when a stranger approached her near Block 631, luring her into his car on the pretext of taking her to see her son. He claimed her son had been seriously injured in a bad fall.After being transferred to another car driven by the second suspect, Ng was blindfolded and her hands bound.Ng's son, Lim Hock Chee, received call at around 1:00 p.m. from the abductors, who demanded a S$20 million ransom. Lim Hock Chee filed a report about the kidnapping with police at 2:13 p.m., and officers from the Criminal Investigation Department responded to the case. The ransom was later negotiated down to S$2 million.The next day, on Jan. 8, Lim drove to Sembawang Park alone at midnight and left a bag containing the S$2 million ransom in cash under a tree in the park. The kidnappers called Lim at 12:20 a.m. to tell him that they released his mother near Seletar West Camp. Police officer later found Madam Ng at a bus stop along Seletar Aerospace Drive and took her to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for a check-up.At around 1:00 a.m., the police tracked down the 41-year-old and 50-year-old suspects and arrested them separately in Hougang and Ang Mo Kio. The $2 million ransom was also recovered from under a tree near a pavilion near Car Park 2 of Sembawang Park.The ransom amount was the highest ever recorded in a kidnapping case in Singapore, according to local reports.--------------------------------------------------------Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Su