Woman in Toa Payoh dispute called uncle "bl**dy old man" and "f******* old man", says witness

An eye witness said a woman swore at an elderly man during a dispute at a hawker centre in Toa Payoh.

Several Stompers alerted Stomp to the clip, which was posted on Thelocalsociety.

The video starts off with the woman talking on her phone, before hanging up and arguing with the old man.

All of a sudden, a man rushed towards the elderly guy from behind shoved the latter with his body.

The couple then continued arguing with the elderly man, before another male tried to break up the dispute.

The Straits Times reports that the witness, Ms Janice Lim, was having dinner at the hawker centre on Friday (Apr 21) at 8.45pm when the incident occurred.

Ms Lim, 50, said that the elderly man, who was holding a tray of food, was asking the woman how many people were sitting at the table.

The woman replied in irritation: "Can't you see it's reserved", Ms Lim said, adding that there was a small foldable umbrella on the table. There was also dirty dishes and leftover food from previous patrons.

The elderly man said he could not, and repeated a few times that he just needed one seat, but did not raise his voice.

According to Ms Lim, he also asked the woman what she meant by "reserve", as the hawker centre was a public place,.

The woman continued to say loudly things like "you don't understand the word reservation?", and called him a "bl**dy old man" and "f******* old man", added Ms Lim.

It was at this point that the young man arrived and shoved the elderly man, before continuing the quarrel.

Ms Lim said that at this point a few people started to approach the couple and the elderly man, including herself.

A man in black, seen in the video, reached them first. He was sitting at a table beside them, which had one seat left, and offered it to the uncle.

Later, Ms Lim also saw another patron tell the young man he should not have pushed the elderly man.

The young man is said to have pushed the plates and bowls on the table onto the floor in anger, leaving a mess for the cleaners.

"This is the worst manifestation of our seat choping culture," Ms Lim added.

In response to the allegations, UOB wrote on its Facebook page today (Apr 23) after queries by Stomp:

"We are investigating the matter to ascertain the identities and determine if either or both parties in the video are members of our staff.

"UOB cannot condone such behaviour which neither reflects our values nor the standards we expect of all our employees."