Resident on man perched on 12th storey window: 'I just wanted to hit him'

He was awoken by his wife's screams.

Rushing out of his bedroom, Mr Lee saw an unusual sight. A man was perched outside his 12th-storey kitchen window.

Shirtless and clad only in a pair of boxer shorts, he was clinging on to the bamboo poles.

Shocked, Mr Lee, 50, a bus driver, shouted: "Hey! What are you doing!"

The man mumbled something in Vietnamese, then apologised aloud in English.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, before scampering down to a lower floor.

"At that time, I wanted to just hit him, then call the police," Mr Lee, who declined to give his full name, told The New Paper yesterday.

The incident happened early yesterday morning at Block 225, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

A police spokesman said they received a call at 12.02am.

Officers who checked on the 10th storey unit could not find the "climbing" man. Instead, they found contraband cigarettes inside the flat.

Police have classified the case as one of intentional harassment.

Mr Lee said he went down to the 10th storey flat to confront the man after he disappeared from his 12th-storey window.

"But no one answered the door," he said.

Madam Jenn Tan, 58, who lives next door to the man, said she often sees the man, believed to be in his 20s, and another Vietnamese youth, carrying and dragging big trash bags and luggage to their 10th-storey flat, which they had rented from an elderly couple.

She did not know what the bags or luggage contained.

WINDOWS

Said Madam Tan: "I never lock my windows. But now my husband is so worried that he said we must lock our windows every day."

Like her, Mr Lee too, is concerned.

"I fear for my 12-year-old daughter, but I'm not too worried because I always lock my windows," he said.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it sent a fire engine, a red rhino, two support vehicles and an ambulance to the scene.

A safety life air pack was deployed at the foot of the block as a precautionary measure.

Investigations are ongoing.

vivlmy@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 30, 2016.
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