Unhappy birthday: Woman delivering celebratory cupcakes hurls racial slurs at recipient

A birthday surprise recently turned into a rude shock for one man living in Woodlands.

His friend sent some sweet treats to his house to celebrate the occasion, but what Amritpal Singh got was the delivery rider hurling racial slurs at him.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (Dec 8), the 31-year-old man wrote that his friend had ordered the cupcakes for him on Wednesday via Grab. 

But instead of handing him the food at the door, the delivery woman allegedly threw the box onto Singh's shoe rack and said: "Stupid Indian, rude keling people, don't know how to answer phone call".

According to him, she continued to utter vulgarities and racist remarks as she walked down the corridor.

"Keling" is a racial slur that is "derogatory, insulting and downright racist", Singh said.

"It's like using the N-word".

He later learned that the delivery woman got upset because his friend, who was in a meeting at the time, had only answered her call after the third try. 

According to his friend, the delivery rider shouted over the phone and said: "Eh, what's the unit number or you come down collect, I got other deliveries to do [sic]". 

The delivery woman also used the same racial slurs on his friend in a message written in Malay within the app's chat box.

Despite "calmly" telling the delivery woman the unit number, which was already provided in the order, the delivery woman could not be appeased.

"Even if my friend had not answered the call, the unit number was already mentioned in the notes," he said. 

"And even then, no matter what, the delivery lady could always complain to Grab about this instead of surprising me with such [service] and being so racist about it."

Singh added that he has received deliveries from friends multiple times and he has never faced such an issue in the past. 

Speaking to AsiaOne on Friday, the man said he was taken aback by the delivery woman's actions. 

"Firstly, I didn't know why or what the issue was and secondly no matter what there was no need to hurl any racial remark or vulgarity. That angered me," he shared. 

He also told AsiaOne that Grab had called him to inform him that they're looking into the matter and will update him by next Tuesday. 

Replying to his viral Facebook post, the company also said that its partner quality team has been alerted and "necessary steps will be taken to address this". 

Singh said that he will decide on whether to make a police report after he sees how Grab resolves the issue. 

AsiaOne has contacted Grab for comment. 

Those who found guilty of deliberately wounding the religious or racial feelings of a person may be imprisoned for up to three years, or fined, or both.

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melissateo@asiaone.com

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