SINGAPORE- When a passenger on the boat alerted Mr Abdul Mutalib to a small figure floating near Bedok Jetty, he was convinced that it was just another doll.
In his four years as a boat driver, he had seen his share of dolls floating in the water.
But when the 50-year-old steered the boat closer to the figure, he was astonished to find that it was the naked body of a boy.
Mr Abdul Mutalib quickly called the police and then The New Paper hotline, which he had saved in his phone address book.
He recounted: "It was quite dark, so we shone a light at the figure. I wasn't scared, I just felt terribly sad for the boy."
Seeing the body of a child made the father of seven think of his children.
He said: "I felt a tug at my heartstrings and I thought of my children at home."
The incident became a headline story on Nov 26.
He said: "I have been reading TNP every day for years. When I saw the body, I immediately wanted to inform the paper."
Mr Abdul Mutalib praised the way the story was delivered together with how the two other drowning accidents were reported, saying he liked the way they were packaged.
Like him, another reader, Mr Gary Haris, 39, alerted TNP after he saw a toppled tipper truck while driving to Woodlands by the Kranji Expressway on Nov 21.
Get The New Paper for more stories.