Policeman mistaken as fake for trying to warn Sengkang resident of possible bomb

Policeman mistaken as fake for trying to warn Sengkang resident of possible bomb

SINGAPORE - When a suspected bomb relic was found in a construction site at Sengkang West on Friday (Jan 22), the Singapore Armed Forces' Explosive Ordnance Disposal team safely detonated it.

Residents in the area had to be warned for safety reasons but one policeman was mistaken as a fake for doing his job.

According to a Facebook post by Chen Jian Ming, who lives in a Fernvale unit, the policeman knocked on the door of his home early Saturday morning at about 1.30am and had requested for Chen to open the door.

The Facebook post, which showed screengrabs from the closed-circuit television (CCTV), stated that Chen did not want to open the door to the policeman. The officer had also gone to other units to knock on his neighbour's doors. He added in his post that he will be "reporting this to the police".

This was despite the policeman's attempt to identify himself through showing his identification card and facing his back towards the camera by pointing to his T-shirt which had the word "police" on it.

It wasn't just Chen who had his suspicions about the policeman. Jasmine Tan, who seems to live in the same unit as Chen, also took to Facebook to question the intentions of the officer. She said: "How strange for Police person to come alone and used stair (sic) instead of the lift?"

In response to Chen's and Tan's posts, Facebook user Huttons Alvin Ng came to the defense of the policeman. He explained that the police had come in a group of eight and had the job of warning residents of the possible bomb found at the construction site.

So were Chen and Tan finally convinced that the policeman was a real officer?

In a follow-up comment to his post, Chen admitted that it was a "real issue this time round" but reiterated that he still would not open the door in the middle of the night to a stranger.

stephluo@sph.com.sg

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