On 7 January 2020 morning, two town council cleaners had a shock: they found a baby alive and abandoned in a bin at the bottom of a rubbish chute at Block 534 Bedok North Street 3.
The newborn was wrapped in a Sheng Siong supermarket plastic bag and was found huddled among other bags filled with rubbish and food packaging.
Lest you’re wondering if Sheng Siong now sells baby, no: someone had left the baby in the bin.
Today, the culprit is found.
Woman Who Abandoned Baby at Bedok Arrested
Today (15 February 2020), the police said that they had arrested a 26-year-old Singaporean woman, believed to be the mother of the abandoned baby, on Thursday (13 February 2020).
To find her, they had to pore through images from police cameras (yes, those police cameras you see in HDBs—they’re not there to monitor community cats’ movement) and other closed-circuit television footage provided by residents and businesses in the neighbourhood.
It wasn’t an easy effort: according to residents in the area, they had gone to every floor in the block to ask for information, and even called vehicle owners in the area who might have captured footage of what happened with their in-car camera.
Lest you still live in the 1800s and think that in-car cameras only record when the car has started, most in-car cameras are now hardwired into the car and would record even when the car’s parked, so as to record footage of anyone hitting the car when it’s stationary.
In other words, if you intend to bully a community cat, please think twice; even if you don’t see a camera around, something you didn’t expect might have filmed your act. Like an innocent car parked metres away.
Woman to be Charged Today
The police are still looking for the father of the baby.
The woman will be charged today with exposure and abandonment of a child under 12 years old, under Section 317 of the Penal Code. If found guilty, she faces a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both.
So if you’ve had a good time yesterday (Valentine’s Day), please remember to take responsibility of what’ll happen soon, If not, the men and woman in blue would be on their way to your house.
After all, you’ve got nine months to plan what to do #justsaying
