Following the viral incident where a resident of Thomson Grand condominium insulted a security guard for clamping his BMW and mocking him for being “poor”, the Union of Security Employees (USE) issued an update on the situation revealing more information on the incident.
Union of Security Employees’ (USE) statement
USE President Brother Ardi, General Secretary Brother Raymond and Mediation Services Officer Brother Irwin, visited the officer, Senior Security Supervisor Lydia and her Ops Manager Derrick Foo at their worksite at Thomson Grand, a condominium project at Sin Ming Walk this afternoon.
As reported in the media, the man had parked his vehicle at the residents’ parking area. On 3rd April 2023 at 0104hrs, the duty security officer, SO Sheelan, noticed the illegally parked vehicle. He attempted to contact the man to move the vehicle but failed after 5 attempts. Following procedures, he proceeded to place a written notice on the vehicle.
At 0700hrs on the same day, the man confronted SO Sheelan about the notice, claiming that he owned a few units at Thomson Grand and could park there even if he did not have a decal. He then left.
At 0810hrs, the man returned and parked his vehicle at the same location. SO Sheelan reported the matter to SSS Lydia, who then proceeded to issue another written notice at 0920hrs. She attempted again to contact the man but failed after 8 times. She then proceeded to clamp the vehicle at about 0940hrs, as required by the condo’s by-laws.
At about 1320hrs, the man confronted SSS Lydia and recorded the confrontation. One of the condo’s residents reportedly shared this video with local media. USE was shown the bodycam footage and it clearly showed the man banging the glass panel of the guardhouse, and also hurling insults at the officers, including of them being poor.
USE will assist SSS Lydia and OM Derrick to report this matter to the Police. We reiterate that USE strongly condemns this act of man. SSS Lydia and OM Derrick were merely executing their tasks, which included enforcing the by-laws with respect to illegal parking. What the man did was unwarranted, and the personal insults were hurtful and shocking.
The Private Security Industry Act was enhanced last year to offer security officers better protection against man like these. USE hopes that this incident will be probed further and just punishment be served.
At the same time, USE would like to share that there has been yet another case reported. We will update with more details in a later post.
Source: Union of Security Employees (USE)