Security Guard Squirted Hand Sanitiser Into Colleague’s Water Bottle as a Prank

Usually, pranks are meant to be in good fun, ending with both parties having a good laugh over the incident.

After all the news about the food delivery “pranks” on April Fool’s, we all know that there are still some lines that shouldn’t be crossed when it comes to playing a prank.

Namely, when said prank could cause harm or discomfort to the one being pranked.

Security Guard Mixed Hand Sanitiser into Colleague’s Water Bottle 

On Thursday (23 September), 49-year-old Dilip Kumar Gobind was fined S$4,500 for one count of a rash act likely to cause hurt after he was caught squirting hand sanitiser into his colleague’s water bottle.

Dilip and his colleague, a 54-year-old woman, worked at a condominium guard house in the eastern part of Singapore. On 13 April 2020, Dilip, who had been on the night shift, decided to play a prank on his colleague because he was reportedly unhappy with her gossipy-nature.

Knowing that the victim had a water bottle in the guard house, Dilip squirted a few pumps of hand sanitiser into her half-filled bottle. According to CNA, he squirted at least two pumps of hand sanitiser into the water bottle.

Explaining his actions, Dilip told the court that he had wanted to “sanitise her mouth” as a joke because she “always liked to gossip about other people”.

Yeah, except that jokes can’t really be considered jokes if they put someone’s life in danger. 

Later in the morning when the victim went to work for her shift, she drank from the bottle, and upon tasting a strong taste of hand sanitiser, spat out the liquid. The victim reported feeling pain in her throat and reported the incident to the operations officer.

The victim had lodged a police report after review of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage later revealed that Dilip had squirted hand sanitiser into the bottle.

In the report, a clinical toxicologist stated that ingestion of hand sanitiser can cause pain, irritation or damage to the throat, oesophagus and stomach, though they also noted that the degree of injury would depend on the concentration of hand sanitiser and the amount ingested.

Although Dilip showed remorse in court, telling the judge that he regretted his actions and “did it in the spur of the moment,” he was told that he had endangered the safety of his colleague in the workplace, and that there was a considerable breach of trust.

For one count of a rash act causing hurt, Dilip could have been sentenced to one years’ jail, fined up to S$5,000, or both.

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