So much food, so little time.
Since the dawn of civilisation, and by that I mean the dawn of the Covid-19 outbreak, people have been breaking the law just to have a tasty meal.
Some eat Bak Kut Teh and post about it online while on a Stay-Home notice, and some argue with enforcement officers when they’re caught eating at hawker centres during the CB.
Presumably, staying at home for days on end made their cravings grow to an uncontainable point.
But this man had a very good reason to breach his quarantine order: he couldn’t wait 30 minutes to eat.
Or did he?
Man Broke Quarantine Order 30 Mins Before It Ended
A 22-year-old man was fined S$1,500 on Wednesday (29 Apr) for breaching a quarantine order by leaving his house 30 minutes before it ended.
Tay Chun Hsien, a financial adviser with AIA, was ordered to be isolated in his flat from 19 to 22 March because he was suspected to be a contact of Covid-19.
Tay signed this written quarantine order to acknowledge receiving it.
Went Out For Roti Prata
At around 11.30 on his last day of quarantine, Tay left his flat and walked to a food court at Yew Tee Square to eat some Roti Prata, according to CNA.
Not a bad meal to celebrate the end of your quarantine, right? The only problem was that his quarantine hadn’t actually ended yet; it was scheduled to end at 12pm.
At about 11.40am, a Certis CISCO security officer assigned to Tay made a video call to check if he was still at home.
But Tay answered the call while still having his Prata, and the CISCO officer realised that Tay was not at home.
That video couldn’t have been more incriminating unless he was also deliberately sneezing on someone while eating his Prata.
Tay explained that he left his house because he was hungry, and went home immediately when told to do so.
He later pleaded guilty to one charge of breaching his quarantine order.
Thought It Was 12am Instead of 12pm
But even if he was hungry, why didn’t he just wait 30 minutes?
Well, the 22-year-old has a very reasonable excuse for that: he misread the timing of the end of his quarantine period and thought it was 12am instead of 12pm.
But, according to CNA, the date and time of the quarantine period were in bold and underlined.
Tay’s lawyer said that mixing up the timings was an inadvertent and genuine mistake, as Tay is on long-term medication that causes him to feel anxiety and have difficulty sleeping.
As a result, he was “not as alert as he should have been, did not pay as much attention as regards to the ending time, and made a very silly mistake,” said the lawyer.
A very silly mistake indeed.
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In the end, Tay was fined $1,500, with the prosecutor noting that he was a first-time offender and had pleaded guilty early.
However, for breaching his quarantine order, Tay could have been jailed up to six months, fined a maximum S$10,000, or both.
His very silly mistake could have easily turned into a very costly one.
Follow The Rules
Now, that everyone is under a stay-home order of sorts, we should remember why there are such harsh penalties for these crimes: because it’ll take absolute compliance for the circuit breaker, stay-home notices, and any quarantine orders to work.
Just be thankful that you can still go out to daobao some Prata during the circuit breaker.
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And if you’re ordered to isolate at home and not leave your premises at all, then please follow the government’s instructions, no matter how loudly that Prata is calling your name.
If not your parts is going to cost $1,500.
