A would-be robber hoped to walk away from a Bedok pawnshop with gold jewellery yesterday - but ended up fleeing empty-handed after his chopper broke when he tried to smash open a glass display case.

Employees related how the masked man entered ValueMax at Block 213, Bedok North Street 1, at about 1.50pm brandishing the blade, before he swung it on the glass counter.

Although the thick glass counter cracked slightly, it did not break - unlike the man's weapon, which snapped into two pieces. After picking them up, he fled without taking anything else with him.

Police, who were alerted before 2pm yesterday, are investigating the incident.

An employee at the shop, 66-year-old Choo Yong Chang, said he believed the culprit was in his 40s.

When The Straits Times visited the shop at around 4pm, the business appeared to have returned to normal, although a piece of masking tape covered the cracked display case.

Mr Choo said that while the shop was insured, the staff there had feared that the robber would hack at them with the weapon.

In August last year, a ValueMax pawnshop near Boon Lay MRT station also survived a robbery attempt when 29-year-old Bangladeshi national Sheikh Md Razan threw an object on the shop's counter, falsely claiming it was a bomb.

He also failed to steal anything and was arrested five days later.

He was later charged with attempted armed robbery.