SINGAPORE— Last month, a neighborhood supermarket made an alarming announcement regarding the shocking discovery of a long-time female employee, who had been working at the store for six years, was allegedly involved in a breach of trust.
Daniel Tan Boon Huat, the 43-year-old owner of Angel Supermart, took to Facebook on May 28th to expose the incident.
It happened during a routine review of the surveillance footage when Mr. Tan accidentally discovered a part-time employee engaging in theft.
To Mr. Tan’s astonishment, while scrutinizing the surveillance footage, he noticed suspicious behavior from another female cashier, aged 46, who held a senior position within the shop.
The police have confirmed that they received reports regarding the cases.
On 14 June, the owner provided an update on the mart’s official Facebook page, announcing the official sale of the business to new owners.
“We have formed many relationships with many of you and its a sad thing to leave but we shall leave you in better hands, the new owners are sincere, hardworking and will personally be on hand to handle any issue.”
In a subsequent post on 18 June, the owner stated that all Angel Supermart outlets are permanently closed and expressed gratitude for the community’s support over the past ten years.
The owner said the mart incurred a loss of approximately S$200,000
Daniel Tan is also the founder and managing director of Halal chicken rice chain OK Chicken Rice, and Humfull Prawn Laksa.
In a recent interview with the Chinese media outlet Shin Min Daily News, he revealed the reason for selling his business and admitted to feeling disheartened upon discovering the breach of trust by a senior employee.
Mr. Tan mentioned that the female employee joined their company in 2017. Both he and the manager placed trust in her, and they even celebrated birthdays together.
This employee also assisted in monitoring the CCTV to catch other staff members involved in theft.
However, it turned out to be a case of “a thief crying “stop thief”.
“Since the store’s CCTV footage can only be stored for 15 days, we assigned three employees to review the 15-day footage, which took nearly a month.”
“Consequently, it was revealed that this employee had been stealing money on a daily basis. Even when the police arrived to arrest other employees involved in theft, she showed no fear, ” Mr Tan said.
Mr. Tan noted that he couldn’t determine when the employee began stealing money, but initial estimates indicate that the mart incurred a loss of approximately S$200,000 due to her actions.
“In our 10 years of running the supermarket, we caught 30 employees stealing money, but usually, we would catch them within one or two months. It’s unexpected that this employee went unnoticed for six years.”
He expressed that this incident left him feeling disheartened and extremely unhappy.
“It feels like being cheated on and experiencing a sudden breakup after being married for 10 years. ”
“Coincidentally, someone made an offer to take over the supermarket, so I decided to let it go.”
