Two teens charged after one allegedly placed juice he drank back on FairPrice shelf

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Apr 9, 2020

Two 17-year-old boys appeared in a district court on Thursday (April 9) after one of them was allegedly caught on video sampling drinks at an NTUC FairPrice supermarket before placing them back on a shelf.

The video was uploaded onto Instagram and it later became viral.

It had also caused public alarm in the midst of this current coronavirus outbreak.

Nigel Pang Yew Ming and Quek Xuan Zhi were each charged with one count of being a public nuisance.

In a statement on Wednesday, police said that they were alerted about the incident on Feb 8.

In the video, a boy is seen drinking from a bottle in the supermarket before putting it back on a shelf.

He takes a second bottle and puts it back after sampling its contents.

A version of the video circulating online had the title "how to spread Wuhan", referring to the Chinese city that was the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak at the time.

Later that month, FairPrice said it would be working with the authorities "on the necessary actions that need to be taken for (the) case".

Both teens were offered bail of $3,000 each. They will be back in court on May 8.

Offenders convicted of being public nuisance can be fined up to $2,000.