Everyone wants to be Batman.
A dark and brooding vigilante with cool gadgets and the ability to fly? Who doesn’t want that?
But there’s a reason why only Bruce Wayne can put on a mask and a cape and save humanity from evil; he’s rich, strong, and has an unmatched resoluteness (Also, he’s fictional).
That’s why we fail when we attempt to take the law into our own hands; it simply isn’t that easy (because we don’t live in a comic book).
Man Locked Up 70YO Elderly & Domestic Helper To Try & Get His Money Back; Jailed 6 Weeks Instead
When a salesman took a loan from his girlfriend and became uncontactable afterwards, Chris Ng Sze How got pissed.
Who wouldn’t be? Especially since the salesman borrowed the money over a year ago and promised to pay up.
I remember getting upset in Primary School when a friend I had lent money to suddenly and inexplicably forgot who I was the next day. I was thinking about asking my fists to remind him, but then I remembered I was a pacifist and told the teacher instead.
I eventually got my money back.
Ng here was in a similar predicament. The salesman, Mr Chow Yeow Hui, had borrowed money from his girlfriend and not paid the amount back.
Ng couldn’t make a police report nor had he any legal recourse. So, he did the unthinkable.
He tried to Batman his way out of his loan predicament.
Locked old man and domestic helper in house
Ng, went to Chow’s home in Toa Payoh to padlock the flat to force him to show up. It is not clear how much money Chow owed.
But when he arrived, Chow’s Indonesian domestic helper Indrawati said Chow was not home. She tried calling Chow, but he did not pick up.
Angered, Ng then used the chain and padlock he brought to lock the main gate, trapping Chow’s 70-year-old wheelchair-bound father and the domestic helper in the flat.
According to The New Paper, Ng told Indrawati to call Chow if they wanted to be freed and left the scene.
He left them there for seven hours.
At about 7.30am, Indrawati managed to contact Chow, who called the police at around 7.50am.
Officers later arrived at the flat and cut open the padlock.
Jailed for six weeks
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joseph Gwee asked for six weeks’ jail, noting the incident left Ms Indrawati in a state of shock.
He added that Ng’s offence was premeditated and similar to that of loanshark harassment.
Ng countered, saying that Chow was a scammer and had been evading him and his girlfriend for more than a year.
But District Judge Carol Ling Feng Yong told Ng that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Yesterday (23 December), Ng pleaded guilty to one count of wrongful confinement and was jailed for six weeks.
So, what’s the moral here? We have three today, because it’s Christmas.
1) Don’t lend anyone money, especially people you don’t know very well
2) Don’t take the law into your own hands
3) There can only be one Batman
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