SINGAPORE— A male resident mocked a security officer after becoming frustrated with his BMW being locked for an alleged parking violation at a condominium, saying, ‘Do you know how many condo units I have?

The resident was supposedly dissatisfied with the security guard for wheel-clamping his car and confronted him while recording a video which he uploaded to the condominium’s chat group.

However, his action was later criticised by other residents.

The incident occurred last Monday (3 Apr) at Thomson Grand condominium on Sin Ming Walk. One of the residents in the chat group forwarded the video to the Chinese media Shin Min Daily to expose the incident.

The video shows the resident repeatedly demanding that the security guard unclamp his car while pointing and cursing at him.

The resident berated the security guard, “My son finishes school at 1:30 pm. It’s because of people like you that I can’t go pick up my son. It’s your interest to make things difficult for people!”

@shinmindailynews

【本地】你觉得有理吗?   男居民违规停车却不满宝马被锁轮,与保安理论时呛声说:“你知道我有几个单位吗”,嘲讽保安穷,事后还报警,引起其他居民反感斥责。 #新明日报 #SGnews #保安 #停车 #不满

♬ original sound – 新明日报 – 新明日报

“I have more than two units here!” the resident boasted to the security guard

In response to the security guard’s explanation that the car had been parked illegally the day before, the resident interrupted the guard and asked, “Do you know how many condo units I have here? I have more than two units here!”

As it was raining at the time of the incident, the security guard asked the resident to go to a sheltered area to talk, but the resident said, “You all like to make things difficult for people. If you’re sick, just be sick. Since you’re all so poor, then you like to die!”

Union of Security Employees condemns act of abuse

On Tuesday (11 Apr), the Union of Security Employees (USE) issued a post on Facebook condemning the act of abuse and reiterating its support for the security officers involved in the incident, Senior Security Supervisor Lydia and her Ops Manager Derrick Foo.

USE President Brother Ardi bin Amir visited them at their worksite to show solidarity.

USE also noted that they will assist Ms Lydia and Mr Foo in reporting the matter to the police.

USE said the bodycam footage clearly showed the abuser banging the glass panel of the guardhouse and also hurling insults at the officers, including of them being poor.

“SSS Lydia and OM Derrick were merely executing their tasks, which included enforcing the by-laws with respect to illegal parking. ”

“What the abuser did was unwarranted, and the personal insults were hurtful and shocking, ” the statement criticised.

USE stressed that the Private Security Industry Act was enhanced last year to offer security officers better protection against abuses like these.

“USE hopes that this incident will be probed further and just punishment be served. ”

The post also noted that the security officer on duty did attempt to contact the BMW owner five times after they found the vehicle was illegally parked at around 1 am that day. Following procedures, he proceeded to place a written notice on the vehicle.

At 7 am the same morning, the owner confronted the duty security officer about the notice, claiming that he owned a few units at Thomson Grand and could park there even if he did not have a decal. He then left.

Later at 8.10 am, the resident returned and parked his vehicle at the same location. The officer reported to SSS Lydia, and the latter issued another written notice at 9.20 am.

“She attempted again to contact the abuser but failed after eight times. She then proceeded to clamp the vehicle at about 0940hrs, as required by the condo’s by-laws.”

The owner then confronted the security officer and recorded the confrontation at around 1.20 pm the same day, during which he hurled insults at the officers.

Singapore police confirmed that they are investigating the incident.

Survey revealed that about four in 10 security officers see various forms of abuse at work

In December last year, USE released a survey revealing that about four in 10 of the 1,002 officers surveyed continue to see various forms of abuse at work, a slight increase from 2021.

Singapore has about 40,000 security officers spread across approximately 265 agencies.

The survey showed that 66.6 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed to the statement “I would probably look for a new job in the near future”, which was up from 43.1 per cent in the 2021 survey.

Previous incident in 2019: Condo resident yells at security officer, claims ownership of S$1.5 million apartment

In October 2019, a video went viral where a man in sleeveless shirt and shorts was seen yelling and swearing at the top of his voice after being told by the senior security officer that he needed to pay parking fees for guests visiting the condo.

The man, who lives in the Eight Riversuites condominium in Bendermeer, told the security officers that he had bought his apartment for S$1.5 million, and swearing at the officer.

Once the video went viral, the ill-tempered man was identified as Mr Ramesh Erramalli, a foreign talent from India who works at global financial services company J.P. Morgan in Singapore.

Even Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also took to his Facebook to support the security officer and noted that what the resident did was wrong “at so many levels”.

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