Shop owner struggling to restrain rowdy man: Nobody helped me

SINGAPORE - Diagnosed with a heart problem, Mr Haja Bahurdeen normally avoids strenuous physical activity.

But an incident yesterday forced the 59-year-old shop owner into a 20-minute struggle to restrain a rowdy young man before the police arrived.

Mr Bahurdeen and his son-in-law, Mr Haroon Rasheed, 36, operate Goodwill Electronics, a computer repair store at Upper Dickson Road in Little India which occupies two adjacent units.

The incident began when a man in his 30s stumbled into the store at around noon and started creating a ruckus.

The shop owners said the man was drunk and spoke loudly. He entered and left the shop repeatedly.

"It seemed like he purposely wanted to come inside and disturb us," Mr Rasheed told The New Paper.

He said he approached him and tried to calm him down, but was instead punched in his left cheek.

Mr Rasheed retaliated by pushing the man out of the store.

By then, Mr Bahurdeen had been alerted to the commotion.

"The drunk man was about to kick my son-in-law, and I had to restrain him," he said.

He said a group of onlookers had gathered, but nobody dared to touch the drunk man. So he was left to apprehend the younger man all by himself.

Instead, some of the onlookers held back his son-in-law, who said he was trying to help Mr Bahurdeen.

LUCKY BREAK

After a 20-minute struggle, Mr Bahurdeen's lucky break came when the drunk man tried to push him away, but instead tripped and fell.

The older man seized the opportunity and held the drunk man down before managing to tie him up with a few computer cables located outside the store.

They then called the police.

Mr Bahurdeen suffered a cut on his left forearm from the scuffle, and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

What upset him most was the lack of help from the 30-odd bystanders who gathered during the scuffle.

"Everybody just watched me struggle with the man from afar. Nobody helped me at all."

But he felt lucky to have suffered only light injuries.

"Luckily, he wasn't armed with a weapon, or I might have been seriously injured," he said.

The police said they received a call at 1.11pm requesting assistance. A 38-year-old man was arrested for misconduct in public by a drunken person.

This article was first published on June 3, 2014.
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