ALL was quiet in the unmarked van parked outside a multi-storey car park. The engine was running and the air-conditioning was on, but the lights were out.
Officers from the Ministry of Manpower had picked out the targets – two South Asian men who appeared to be washing cars.
"Let's go", was all the officer said, as he slid open the door of the unmarked van waiting outside the multi-storey car park.
The team moved swiftly, and I found myself hurrying to keep up with them, camera in hand. I kept only a pace behind as they squeezed between parked cars, turned a corner, and bounded up a side staircase.
MOM officers move swiftly into the car park.
ST Photo: Alphonsus Chern
We came face-to-face with a dark-skinned man filling two pails with water.
"M-O-M."
Even as the words were uttered, two hefty officers had already cornered the man, his hands raised as if to plead for mercy.
After arresting one man at the landing,
other officers carry on to the second floor.
ST Photo: Alphonsus Chern
Meanwhile, three more officers had moved to the second floor. I fired seven frames at the trio, and hurried up the steps.
A volley of shouts echoed through the car park as I stepped through the door and saw another man clad in a shirt and three-quarters pants emerge from a row of parked cars. He immediately sprinted for the opposite stairwell, shucking his slippers as he ran, narrowly missing a moving car.
The chase across the second floor.
ST Photo: Alphonsus Chern
The shouting got louder as the officers gave chase, and a couple who had just emerged from their parked car stopped to watch the unfolding scene.
Halfway across the floor, one of the officers tripped and took a tumble. He landed on his knees, rolled to his feet, and continued the chase without missing a beat.
By this time, the car-washer had reached the opposite stairwell. He plunged through the door and down the steps, his pursuers only a fraction of a second behind him, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs and emerged into the night, he was gone.
Apparently, he had dashed across the busy road and vanished into the night. A quick sweep of the area confirmed that he had gone.
As I walked back to the van, heart pounding, a group of middle-aged ladies were sitting together and talking about the episode they just witnessed. Men at the coffee shop eyed us warily as we passed them.
A check of the time stamps on my pictures showed that the chase across the car park floor lasted nine seconds, the whole episode, just 20 - hardly surprising as the man had been running for his life.
Had he been caught, a fine may well have wiped out his savings. Barred from future employment, he might never repay the debt owed to agents in his home country to secure himself a job in Singapore.
By this time, the first car-washer had been handcuffed, and was being taken to a waiting car.
The first car-washer, now arrested, stares at the photographer
through the windows of an unmarked car.
ST Photo: Alphonsus Chern
As I took his picture, he looked uncertain, helpless – a man who was, for the moment, no longer in control of his life.
Read the background story on why MOM tracked down and arrested these particular illegal workers in More raids flush out illegal workers.
Update on Tuesday: Joanne Lee blogs about how her sister was treated like an illegal worker in the US. Read it here.