Father of robbery and molest victim upset that CCTV camera are fakes

[Millennium Falcon]

Do CCTV cameras inside HDB lifts work?

by Sadat Osman
0 June 2012 5:21 PM | Updated 6:45 PM

<cite style="display: block; font-style: normal; font-size: 10px; margin: 4px 0px; ">(Photo / inSing News)</cite>
CCTV cameras inside lifts at some HDB blocks might just be empty camera shells.

A 17-year-old girl found that out the hard way when she was robbed and molested last Friday night in a HDB lift at Woodlands Drive, reported The New Paper.

When the girl’s father approached the Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council to view the CCTV footage of the incident, he was shocked to find out the truth.

He asked what’s the point of having a recording device if it’s not working.

A spokesperson from the Town Council, Soon Min Sin, explained to The New Paper that only half of the lifts in the estate have been fitted with cameras.

He added that the upgrading process is in phases and all 3,000 lifts will have a CCTV camera installed by next year.

However, the CCTV camera in the lobby was working and the footage from that camera would be sent to the police for investigation, said Mr Soon.

He told The New Paper: “In the meantime, those lifts without CCTV cameras are installed with the camera casing so that when there is a need to provide CCTV cameras in the lifts urgently, we can speed up the installation process.”

Meanwhile, Chua Chu Kang MP Zaqy Mohamad, said that cameras in lifts deployed by town councils are used to ensure cleanliness and are meant to deter vandalism and people urinating in the lifts as opposed to how the police use CCTV equipment to prevent crime.

He told the newspaper that for his town council, deploying CCTV cameras in every single lift will be too expensive.

The public is advised to keep vigilant when entering lifts, especially late at night.

 

[Millennium Falcon]

Girl, 17, robbed, groped in lift

Amanda Phua

Thu, Jun 21, 2012
The New Paper

When she saw a man walking quickly at the opposite block, she thought nothing of it and went on waiting for her lift.

But as the 17-year-old student was about to enter the lift just moments later, she heard heavy panting and quick footsteps coming from behind her.

Realising that something wasn't quite right and worried for her own safety, she ran into the lift, pressed 2 for her floor and punched the button to close the doors.

But it was too late.

The man managed to slip in past the closing doors.

And the teenager's worst fears were realised when he wrapped his right arm around her neck.

Terrified, she screamed, but that was just the start of her five-minute ordeal, during which the man not only robbed but also groped her.

The incident - which happened at around 12.20am last Saturday - was the first time in her nine years living in the Woodlands Drive block that Marilyn (not her real name) felt so unsafe and threatened.

The girl cannot be named as she could be a victim of molest.

The man, whom she described as being well-built and about 1.7m tall, covered her mouth with his left hand when she started yelling.

When the lift doors opened at the second floor, the dark-skinned man pressed the button to close the doors, followed by the button for the seventh floor.

He then wrapped his arm tighter around her neck.

Marilyn told The New Paper yesterday: "It was difficult to breathe. And when he put his arm tighter around me, I fell.

"He told me, 'I just want your money. Don't shout. Just give me money.'"

So she handed him her handbag containing her iPhone, a wallet which had about $10 and her ez-link card.

But just as she thought that her ordeal was over, her attacker reached over with his left hand and groped her right breast.

The petite girl started crying, but there was nothing she could do as she was trapped in the lift with the man.

She recalled that as he molested her, the man told her not to scream and that he would release her on the seventh floor.

When the lift reached the seventh floor, he kept his word and released her.

She scrambled to her feet and managed to glance at her attacker before the lift doors closed.

Saw his face

Said Marilyn: "He was wearing a white T-shirt with a design in front, black pants and black shoes.

"He wrapped another white T-shirt around his head, but didn't cover his face. I saw his face."

She ran down the stairs to her flat on the second floor and pounded on the door, but no one heard her as her father was in the shower and her mother was asleep.

"So I ran to the bus stop and asked a girl if I could borrow her phone to call the police, but she didn't have one," Marilyn, the youngest of three children, said.

"Then I ran around the blocks and finally borrowed a phone from a man at a void deck and called 999."

The police arrived shortly after.

Marilyn said that the officers searched the area for more than two hours but did not find the man.

A police spokesman confirmed that they received a call for assistance around 12.40am last Saturday.

They are investigating the case as robbery and suspected outrage of modesty.

Marilyn's oldest brother, who was out earlier, returned home at around 2am and joined the search.

The siblings finally went home only at 2.45am.

Initially, the girl thought the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the lift would provide an image of the attacker.

Unfortunately, that camera was a dummy.

Her father, 44, a taxi driver, was angry because he had hoped that the lift's CCTV camera footage would help to identify his daughter's attacker.

He said: "For what purpose is the CCTV camera there if it's not working? I feel that I have to bring this matter up. It could happen to anyone."

Mr Soon Min Sin, general manager of the Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council, said in an e-mail reply to TNP that the CCTV camera at the block's lift lobby was working, and that the footage would be handed to the police today.

He added: "As for the lift in that block, it is not installed with CCTV cameras.

"As there are about 3,000 lifts in our town, the installation of CCTV cameras in lifts are done in phases. About half have been completed and the other half will be installed by next year.

"In the meantime, those lifts without CCTV cameras are installed with the camera casing so that when there is a need to provide CCTV cameras in the lifts urgently, we can speed up the installation process.

"For every two lifts in our town, one is installed with a CCTV camera and the other with a camera casing."

Mr Soon said the town council will install working cameras in both lifts of that block by today.

A similar incident happened in the Sembawang-Nee Soon GRC in 2010.

The Straits Times reported that a 13-year-old girl was taken to the 10th floor by a stranger in a lift.

The girl escaped unharmed, but the man's identity was never established as the "CCTV camera" in that lift was also a shell.

When contacted, Mr Ong Teng Koon, Member of Parliament for the ward, said: "We are working with the police and are retrieving the CCTV footage."

When told that the camera at the lift lobby was working, Marilyn's father said: "The important thing is that the one inside the lift is working. If something happened in the lift, what's the use of the dummy camera?"

This article was first published in The New Paper.

 

[ReadySteadyGO]

alot of fake around, put on pai swee only.

 

[lianbeng]

lianbeng cautioned: the next one might be loaded hor.want to try?

 

[hokkien]

lianbeng cautioned: the next one might be loaded hor.want to try?

Ask bro pervert to try coz he love challenge

 

[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

Man arrested for robbing and molesting teenage girl in lift

AsiaOne
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2012

Police have arrested a 26-year-old man who allegedly robbed and molested an 18-year-old girl in a lift at Woodlands Drive on June 16.

In earlier reports, a man was said to have wrapped his arm around the neck of his victim before he demanded money from her and groped her.

In a statement, police said that they had arrested a man at his flat in Woodlands on the morning of June 27.

He will face the court on June 28 on charges of robbery and outraging the modesty of a woman.

If found guilty of robbery, he could face a maximum of 14 years imprisonment and a minimum of 12 strokes of the cane.

He could also be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in jail and be caned for charges of outraging the modesty of the 18-year-old girl.

[email protected]

 

[Connor]

There are some statements about this accident "Town councils deploy closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in neighborhoods to deal with cleanliness issues in the estate."This differs from the police objective of deploying CCTVs as crime prevention measures," said Chua Chu Kang Town Council chairman and Chua Chu Kang GRC Member of Parliament Zaqy Mohamad."These cameras are usually installed to tackle problems such as urinating and vandalism in the lifts.