News

Police Called In After Two Seniors Quarrelled Over Space to Sell Tissue Paper at Waterloo Street

2022-12-21 , 8:52 pm

While we all can agree that Singapore’s a civilised country, unexpected (and, well, messy) things sometimes happen.

And that was exactly what a reader of Shin Min Daily News saw last week outside the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple along Waterloo Street.

In particular, the reader told Shin Min that they saw police officers interrogating an elderly man and woman selling tissues outside the temple separately at around 3 pm on Friday (16 December).

The reason?

The two elderly had gotten into an intense argument over the space that they had “chope-d” to sell their tissue paper.

Yup, the police really did have to go down to help resolve the incident.

Here’s what happened.

Elderly Woman’s Perspective

When reporters from Shin Min headed to the area where the incident occurred two days after it happened (18 December), the elderly woman involved in the quarrel told them that the man started selling tissue paper in the area around two months ago.

However, she felt he was trying to “steal her land” from her by setting up his stall near hers, which sowed the seed of conflict between the two.

The woman, Huang Xiuyu (Hanyu pinyin), said that everyone who sets up their stall in the area has their “assigned” location and that the man should not have set up his stall near hers.

Ms Huang, 60, added that he set up his stall right behind hers and tried to chase her away.

According to her, he also tried to “steal her business” whenever customers bought tissue paper from her by trying to shout loudly to attract customers, causing her to be extremely annoyed.

Man Curses Frequently as Well

Ms Huang added that the man often curses while selling tissue paper and that his language is foul.

Apart from that, Ms Huang recounted how he even cursed her and her entire family while outside the temple.

What Exactly Happened that Day

As for what exactly happened on 16 December, Ms Huang claimed that she and the man had gotten into yet another conflict over their new and existing “hatred” for each other.

According to her, he had apparently fallen asleep at his stall when someone walked past and kicked the items at his stall.

He immediately accused Ms Huang of kicking the items at his stall and called the police, causing them to go down to the area to interrogate both of them.

The police left the scene after trying to mediate the situation.

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Elderly Man’s Perspective

As for the elderly man, Shin Min reporters were able to find and talk to him on Monday (19 December. He described how Ms Huang had indeed arrived earlier than him on the day of the incident.

However, he said that he had angered her after accidentally touching her stall’s parasol when opening his parasol at his stall.

He added that Ms Huang often uses hostile and derogatory terms to talk about him and even does the same for his friends around him.