Woman harassed by stranger near workplace
THIS IS A PHOTO ILLUSTRATION.
STOMPer Rachelle says she was harassed by an unknown man who followed her, while she was on her way home from work.
She recounts this unpleasant incident which took place on Wednesday(10 Sept):
“I got off work around 6.15pm. I was walking along Raffles Exchange (underground link in Raffles Place) to get to One Raffles Quay’s bus stop. It was peak hour so the link was quite packed.
“Along the way, I stopped by a store. After finishing with my purchase, from the corner of my eye, I felt a man watching me. I thought maybe I was being too sensitive so I walked on.
“After I took a few steps, I felt he was walking quite closely behind, so I purposely stopped and pretended to look into my bag, hoping he would just walk past me. He took a few steps and then stopped as well.
“By that time, I knew I was being followed, but as there were a lot of people I had no choice but to walk on. I tried to quicken my pace hoping to lose him. I thought he will give up after a while, but I was wrong.
“We reached a certain point of the link where there were not so many people and suddenly, he came up to me from behind. It was at such close proximity that I backed off immediately. He asked me not to be afraid as he just wanted to get to know me.
“By that time I was quite scared and told him that I was not interested and to stop following me. There were a few passers-by who looked at what was happening and his face changed immediately. He raised his voice and said he was not following me and that I don’t own that place. He hurled abuses at me and said I was crazy. He showed me the middle finger and walked off slowly. I was both stunned and angry, and did not know what to do.
"Then I saw a building management office sign for One Raffles Quay on level 2 and decided to seek their help. I related my incident and one of the officers asked me to bring him to the scene where it happened.
"While retracing my steps, I spotted the man again in a 7-eleven store reading magazine! I pointed him out to the guards and they suggested I should call the police to report the case and I did.
"While waiting for the police to arrive, more reinforcements came and we stood outside the store and by that time, he knew he was being monitored. He remained in the store and continued reading the magazine. In between, he made some phone calls.
“It took about 25 minutes for the police officers to arrive. One of the police officers took down my statement, while another one escorted him out of the store to take his statement. His version of the story was that he did casually approach me to try to know me but did not hurl any abusive language or show any signs to humiliate me. He claimed that I was just exaggerating the whole event.
“In the end, the police officers closed the case by asking me to forget about the whole incident by having a nice dinner and a good rest! That man gave me a smug look and left. The officers said if I wanted to further pursue the matter, I would have to bring it to a Sub Court to open a case file. The whole process would be long and tedious and not worth my time. He would most probably get away with just a fine.
“Although the whole incident is over, knowing that this man works around my office area, makes me feel really uncomfortable. My colleagues have advised me not to take that underpass link fearing I might bump into him again. I also want to alert all the other females out there to be careful of such incidents.
“If similar incidents are to happen again what can we do? Can one get away for hurling abuses, showing rude sign languages to people to degrade them?”
THIS IS A PHOTO ILLUSTRATION.
STOMPer Rachelle says she was harassed by an unknown man who followed her, while she was on her way home from work.
She recounts this unpleasant incident which took place on Wednesday(10 Sept):
“I got off work around 6.15pm. I was walking along Raffles Exchange (underground link in Raffles Place) to get to One Raffles Quay’s bus stop. It was peak hour so the link was quite packed.
“Along the way, I stopped by a store. After finishing with my purchase, from the corner of my eye, I felt a man watching me. I thought maybe I was being too sensitive so I walked on.
“After I took a few steps, I felt he was walking quite closely behind, so I purposely stopped and pretended to look into my bag, hoping he would just walk past me. He took a few steps and then stopped as well.
“By that time, I knew I was being followed, but as there were a lot of people I had no choice but to walk on. I tried to quicken my pace hoping to lose him. I thought he will give up after a while, but I was wrong.
“We reached a certain point of the link where there were not so many people and suddenly, he came up to me from behind. It was at such close proximity that I backed off immediately. He asked me not to be afraid as he just wanted to get to know me.
“By that time I was quite scared and told him that I was not interested and to stop following me. There were a few passers-by who looked at what was happening and his face changed immediately. He raised his voice and said he was not following me and that I don’t own that place. He hurled abuses at me and said I was crazy. He showed me the middle finger and walked off slowly. I was both stunned and angry, and did not know what to do.
"Then I saw a building management office sign for One Raffles Quay on level 2 and decided to seek their help. I related my incident and one of the officers asked me to bring him to the scene where it happened.
"While retracing my steps, I spotted the man again in a 7-eleven store reading magazine! I pointed him out to the guards and they suggested I should call the police to report the case and I did.
"While waiting for the police to arrive, more reinforcements came and we stood outside the store and by that time, he knew he was being monitored. He remained in the store and continued reading the magazine. In between, he made some phone calls.
“It took about 25 minutes for the police officers to arrive. One of the police officers took down my statement, while another one escorted him out of the store to take his statement. His version of the story was that he did casually approach me to try to know me but did not hurl any abusive language or show any signs to humiliate me. He claimed that I was just exaggerating the whole event.
“In the end, the police officers closed the case by asking me to forget about the whole incident by having a nice dinner and a good rest! That man gave me a smug look and left. The officers said if I wanted to further pursue the matter, I would have to bring it to a Sub Court to open a case file. The whole process would be long and tedious and not worth my time. He would most probably get away with just a fine.
“Although the whole incident is over, knowing that this man works around my office area, makes me feel really uncomfortable. My colleagues have advised me not to take that underpass link fearing I might bump into him again. I also want to alert all the other females out there to be careful of such incidents.
“If similar incidents are to happen again what can we do? Can one get away for hurling abuses, showing rude sign languages to people to degrade them?”
