Monkey Snatched 70YO Woman’s Purse & Threw Her Items from a Tree at Punggol Waterway Park

If you’re among the well-travelled, you might have heard of a temple in Bali that’s just filled with sacred monkeys that are supposed to have “guarded” the temple for centuries.

One of the main tips you’ll learn from other travellers and the guide alike there is that you’ll need to be super careful with anything you have on you, and that includes spectacles for those bespectacled people like me, phones, and of course, bags.

Like Aladdin’s Abu, they know exactly when we let our guard down and when to move in for the steal.

And once they get their hands on what they want, it’s finders’ keepers. You can only weep as you bid your items goodbye… unless of course, you happen to have some bananas to trade.

Monkey Snatched 70YO Woman’s Purse & Threw Her Items from a Tree at Punggol Waterway Park

A 70-year-old grandma learned this hard lesson while on her usual morning stroll near Sunrise Bridge at around 9am on Apr 25.

A witness on the ground, a man called Mr Tan (陈先生), saw the entire incident unfold in front of his very own eyes.

He said that he spotted a wild monkey making its way carefully towards the 70-year-old grandma, who was taking a breather on a bench.

With lightning speed, it grabbed her bag and scampered away up a tree.

“The monkey is extremely clever. After snatching the bag, it immediately climbed up a tree, and opened the zipper on the bag.”

“It started taking out items from the bag, including the lady’s ID card, a bottle of sweets, MRT/LRT card, handphone and a wallet, and throwing them to the ground,” he added.

It’s likely that the monkey is trying to find some food in there.

Monkey Business

Mr Tan took a photo of the brazen monkey as it was seemingly inspecting one of the items in the bag, and posted the image to the website, Stomp.

He then tried to help the old lady by using the sweets to draw the monkey’s attention.

It failed.

Instead, the sugary treat attracted another wild monkey.

The more the merrier, I guess!

Cutting their losses and trying to avoid getting swarmed by more hungry monkeys, Mr Tan and other good Samaritans ended up helping the grandma picked up her things from the ground and returning the items to her.

The bag though… that’s the monkey’s now.

When interviewed by LianHe WanBao (联合晚报), the old lady said, “At that time, I was very afraid and I didn’t dare to go after the monkey.”c

Featured Image: Facebook (Lim Jiehe)