SINGAPORE – A troop of monkeys has been frequenting The Punggol Settlement in north-eastern Singapore, causing damage to some businesses but also drawing customers.

House of Seafood chief executive Francis Ng, 50, said that up to 60 monkeys would gather outside the ground floor restaurant every other day from about 3pm to 6pm. When not climbing trees, they would sit on the fence and on a huge orange-red replica of a crab.

Mr Ng said the monkeys have stolen cutlery, small plates, tablecloths and plastic food replicas. More painfully, they have made about six holes the size of a 50-cent coin so far in the restaurant’s three-month-old retractable awning that cost about $20,000.

Punggol Seafood managing director Fabian Lim, 38, said the monkeys also damaged a portable tent that provided shelter for his customers and made a nuisance of themselves by pilfering wet tissues from unattended table settings.

He, too, usually sees them during the 3pm-6pm period, but he heard from the cleaners that the monkeys come by in the morning about three or four times weekly.

Mr Ng said that when House of Seafood opened in The Punggol Settlement in 2013, he used to see about three or four monkeys in the park near the waterfront every two to three months.

He has spotted more outside his restaurant in the past five years.

In photos and videos Mr Ng took on Wednesday at around 1.30pm, some monkeys are seen on the footpath in New Punggol Road, which is a stone’s throw from The Punggol Settlement.