A netizen has accused Police of lax behaviour after a “tile-flying” incident involving his 2 elderly neighbours.
Jules Tan says his neighbours came knocking on his door for help at around 11.20pm at night.
They were frightened because they of loud thumping noises, apparently caused by floor tiles which became dislodged for no apparent reason.
“While we were in the house, the tiles continued to fly up (to the height of table top) with loud thumps which is a scary sight.”
Tan says that when he called the police, he was referred to the 24hr town council helpline.
He said that police officers also called him back to say they will refer the case to the HDB the next day.
In the meantime, the elderly couple didn’t dare to go home and decided to wait at the void deck.
However, MP for West Coast GRC Foo Mee Har turned out to be the unlikely heroine in this case.
According to grassroots volunteer Rosalind Tan, Ms Foo got wind of the incident and personally saw to it that help was given to the elderly couple.
“It was Ms Foo who contacted me to check on the elderly couple and she also assisted to contact HDB. We have helped packed the house and put cardboard on the affected floor.”
This is Jules Tan’s Facebook post in full:
“Update: Thank you Mdm Foo Mee Har for giving assistance to your dearest residents! The authorities and volunteers are here to support our neighbour!
[posted 12mn last night]
We heard loud thumps and then our neighbor came knocking on our door for help. While we were in the house, the tiles continued to fly up (to the height of table top) with loud thumps which is a scary sight. We called the police (11.26pm), who referred us to town council 24hr helpline (11.28pm), who then called us back at (11.35pm) that they will refer to hdb who will come n check tomorrow. The 2 elderly are afraid to go back to the house again. And its been 30min and 2 calls to police. Nobody is here at all to check on the house n elderly.
Singapore Police Force is it another standard protocol that we should all just ignore these calls until someone gets injured? Or these are considered small cases that we should allow the elderly to wait at their void decks until help decides to come during office hours.”
This is Rosalind Tan’s Facebook post in full:
“One of our volunteers chanced upon your message and alerted us. It was Ms Foo who contacted me to check on the elderly couple and she also assisted to contact HDB. We have helped packed the house and put cardboard on the affected floor. Home owner is responsible work of their home. For needy families, Ms Foo has set up a scheme to render assistance to those who are unable to help themselves after means testing. Moving ahead, when such circumstances happen again in our homes, the most helpful way is to contact the right authority. In this case, HDB and/or a renovation contractor to establish the situation. It was fortunate that one of our volunteers chanced upon your posting, but it could also have been missed amidst the large colume of chatters taking place online.”
