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Mystery man claiming to be from Bedok army camp orders 154 flower bouquets, ghosts florist without payment
He refused to make a down payment and claimed that his "office" would only approve payment by cash.
Xueting Wu
September 12, 2025, 07:16 PM
A florist in King Albert Park Mall was excited to receive a large order for over 150 bouquets, but the excitement soon turned to frustration when they realised they were stood up.
The order came to Kiki Florist at 3pm on Sep. 8, asking for four large bouquets and 150 small ones, to be collected about two days later at 1pm on Sep. 10.
It was rather short notice for a "massive" order to a small business, but the customer said he would take as many as they could prepare.
The team was excited, especially when the customer said it was a corporate order from the government, according to a blog post published on Sep. 10 on their website.
"It could've been our highlight of the year," the blog post read. "Instead, it turned into one of our most expensive lessons."
No down payment
When Mothership spoke to Joselyn, who runs Kiki Florist with her sister, she said she would share the story in the hopes of helping other small businesses avoid the same situation.
She said that the customer gave his name as David Lim and sounded "very friendly" in their WhatsApp conversation.
Yet, when Joselyn asked which company the order was for, he did not answer her directly.
Instead, he said that he would inform his "office" and update her the next morning as he was "going for training at Pulau Tekong".
When Joselyn asked for a down payment, Lim simply said he would send the invoice to his office.
On Sep. 9, while the team started preparing the bouquets, they felt unsure whether they should go ahead with the order without any down payment.
Partly also because the team did not have the capacity for the large order in such a short time, Joselyn decided to tell Lim that the shop could only manage 100 small bouquets.
He agreed, and still insisted on not making a down payment, but said that he would pay S$2,200 in cash on collection for the 100 bouquets.
Claimed to be from "logistics team" of Bedok Army Camp
According to Joselyn, he then explained that he was from the logistics team of Bedok Army Camp, and that the flowers were to be given to officers at an "army welcoming event".
His WhatsApp profile photo showed a young man in a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) uniform.
Lim also claimed that his office would only approve payment by cash, citing a case in the past where a supplier from had cancelled an order on the day itself.
Joselyn's team thought that he seemed sincere, and since he was still responsive to their messages, they wanted to trust him.
Since they had already prepared 50 bouquets by then, Joselyn told Lim that without any down payment, he would only get 50 bouquets.
According to the blog post, he again agreed, and gave his word that he would pay S$1,1,00 in cash.
Collection day
On the day he was meant to collect the bouquets, Lim surprised the team by trying to place an additional order — not for flowers, but for packets of Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) typically consumed by SAF officers.
He keep calling to ask if the shop could help him find and order MREs, as his team's existing contract with a distributor had ended, Joselyn told Mothership.
He needed the MREs very urgently for an upcoming field camp training, he explained.
Finding this request very strange, Joselyn replied that the shop could not help him.
As for the flowers, Lim said on the phone that "his men" would be at the shop in 30 minutes to pick up the bouquets and pay the cash.
However, no one showed up for the order.
After two hours of anxious waiting, Lim called the shop again and put his supposed supervisor on, who said that they would not collect any less than 150 bouquets.
When the shop asked him to take responsibility, the supervisor said someone was looking for him, and hung up.
Some time after that, Lim messaged the shop again, and asked for another 100 bouquets for the following day, when the supposed welcoming event would have been over.
This time, the team decided to firmly refuse the order if he would not make a down payment.
According to Joselyn, Lim has not made any further reply so far.
Frustration
Besides the S$1,100 for the 50 bouquets that were prepared but went unpaid for, Kiki Florist also lost out on potential earnings from other orders at that time.
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The shop did not accept seven orders worth around S$300 to devote more capacity to Lim's order, and procured 120 small bags just for his flowers, Joselyn shared.
The 50 bouquets are currently now on sale for S$17 each, discounted from the usual price of S$22.
"I'm a bit frustrated with the monetary loss since we are just small business and we are just trying to get by," Joselyn said. "So although it might not be much for other business, it is for us."
The biggest frustration for the team, however, was the anxiety of not knowing what they should do and whether anyone would collect the order.
Having learnt from this experience, Joselyn cautioned, "Everyone should just be careful. It's very rare for corporate to pay by cash, and 'I give you my word' doesn't pay the bill."
Top images from WhatsApp and Kiki Florist
