Ex-cop puts investigative skills to rewarding use on vintage trail

He finds gold and silver to be among the safest forms of investment today

- Timothy Goh

Former policeman Wak Sadri keeps his investigation skills up to speed by travelling the world to unearth vintage treasures like original movie posters and rare porcelain, but when it comes to his investment, he reckons it would be criminal to bypass precious metals like gold and silver.

As he says: "They are among the safest forms of investment today; I actually started accumulating gold bullion at $280 per troy ounce, and today it is trading at more than $3,900 per troy ounce... Along the way, I sold some to buy my car."

Mr Sadri, a police officer for over 20 years, developed a passion for vintage wares when he married in 2002 and became increasingly impressed by his mother-in-law's eye-catching collection.

"She had everything from Art Deco-style furniture to Peranakan porcelain, and those objects reminded me of my own childhood and my late parents... so they brought me back to the good old days," he said.

That eventually led him to quit the force and open his vintage shop, Treasure At Home, in Tai Seng in 2021.

Before he opened the shop, Mr Sadri, 46, and his wife would scour antique shops around Singapore, including those in Sungei Road and Joo Chiat, hunting for vintage wares to add to their collection.

But no find has yet matched one of Mr Sadri's heirlooms: "One of my most sentimental pieces was a Straits Settlements police belt, which was passed down to me from my late grandfather.

"The belt originally belonged to his father, an officer in the Straits Settlements police force. I held on to it for six years. I made the difficult decision to sell it when my children were young, prioritising their needs, and I sold the belt for four tins of baby powder."