Man lying on ground arrested for public nuisance after allegedly trashing jewellery store in Geylang

The New Paper
Dec 23, 2022

A man was arrested after a skirmish with police officers at Geylang Lorong 16. 

A two-minute clip of the incident, uploaded by Tiagong.sg on Thursday (Dec 22), shows the man, dressed in a white t-shirt, attempting to open the door of a police car. 

A woman speaking in Vietnamese can be heard throughout the video, though it is not known who she is.

After police officers pull him away from the vehicle, the man presses himself against a pole while speaking to them.

The video then cuts to him lying on the ground, seemingly begging the two police officers for mercy. 

Towards the end of the video, the woman says in Mandarin: "He's faking it." 

When reporters from Shin Min Daily News visited the scene on Thursday night, the owner of a jewellery store, Yan, said that she first noticed the man pacing outside her store. 

He later rushed into her shop and allegedly smashed the counter, knocking over tables and chairs at the front of the store.

"I was afraid that he was armed,” Yan said. "I asked him what his intentions were, but he didn't respond and continued trashing the place. Other people were also scared and left." 

According to Yan, the man then rushed onto the road, paying no heed to oncoming cars. 

"I noticed his behaviour getting more bizarre, so I called the police."

The police took about half an hour to calm him down, before questioning him at the staircase, she said. 

The police said a 54-year-old man was arrested for public nuisance, and that investigations are ongoing.