Somewhere along the line, I began to associate pranks with assholes. Not because pranks can’t be funny, but oftentimes, the ones that are seen the most are the pranks that are assholes by nature.
Good pranks are actually pretty difficult, because you have to understand social boundaries, social statuses and relationships in order to make a prank not offensive.
Then you have to add on creativity so that it is actually funny and doesn’t serve to make a victim just a victim.
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Good pranks mean that the victim thinks it’s funny too.
Well, the point is, there’s a certain line that pranks cannot cross or it’ll be in asshole territory, and that’s when people can get hurt.
And this is one of them.
Toy grenade found at Penang Lane cross junction
On 3 Nov 2017 at about 2:00 p.m., two motorists called the police when they noticed something near a fire hydrant at the junction of Penang Lane and Orchard Road.
39 police officers and 8 Singapore Armed Forces personnel from the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive Defence Group (CBRE) were deployed in response to determine the threat.
Penang Lane was temporarily closed off while officers directed the public away from the area, who arrived at about 4.20 p.m.
Penang Lane was later opened again at 5.20 p.m. when the object was later found to be just “a toy resembling a grenade”.
But how did it end up there?
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A cleaner who found the grenade fined S$4,500
CCTV footage showed that Elankovan Marimuthu, a 59-year-old working as a senior machine operator (another title for cleaner), actually found the toy grenade near a fire hydrant.
Instead of taking it away, he repositioned it upright with a pair of tongs to leave it there. This was at about 7 am.
He later admitted to his act when showed the footage, with a reason being he wanted to see the public reaction to the grenade.
Here’s the important thing: he only found the grenade. He wasn’t the one who originally placed it.
He is fined S$4,500 yesterday (24 July 2019).
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Court proceeding stuff
Elankovan was previously charged under the United Nations Act with intending to deceive people that the toy grenade can cause harm, though he is later guilty to one charge of causing alarm under the Protection from Harassment Act, which has a max fine of S$5000.
Elankovan isn’t highly educated and was given the Best Cleaner Award in 2012. Defence lawyer Rajan Supramaniam said that he “was regarded as a trusted and reliable employee”.
District Judge May Mesenas said it was “fortunate the prosecution has reduced the charge, or you would have received a custodial sentence.”
District Judge Mesenas said, “This is a lesson learned for you that you should not take this lightly… after this incident, look at what happened, the public resources that had to be expended.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran said it was “not unreasonable to characterise his acts as irresponsible.
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“In today’s security climate, the authorities always take every threat seriously… especially since it occurred in an area considered sensitive.”
So, we still don’t know who placed the toy grenade there.
Now, we have a situation where there is a prankster, a person who laughed at the prank, and the victim.
It’s cool that we slapped the person who laughed at the prank, but where’s the real prankster?
From what we know, the uncle only failed to report what he found and placed it somewhere to see people’s reaction. How come these lawyers seemed to speak like he is the main criminal?
Netizens show sympathy for cleaner uncle
Being that the uncle seems to be the scapegoat, netizens are sympathising with the uncle.
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Some are even questioning why a low educated cleaner can identify the grenade as “fake” immediately while the police require three hours.
In the end, how did the CCTV show the cleaner uncle repositioning the toy but not the person / people placing it?
Here’s what NCMPs are, and what to expect after GE2025:
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