PUBLISHED ONJanuary 04, 2024 4:38 AMByBhavya RawatAfter things soured between a man and his neighbour, the latter allegedly decided to retaliate by leaving rotten food along their shared corridor every day.
A Reddit post on Tuesday (Jan 2) by the man, who only left his name as Rafael, detailed how his neighbour has been harassing him.
The post included pictures of seemingly rotten food hanging out in the common corridor on two occasions.
The neighbour, who lives in the unit directly opposite Rafael's at Block 19 at Telok Blangah Crescent, allegedly leaves a container of rotten food near Rafael's door every morning.
As a result, the entire corridor of the rental block smells and Rafael said that he is unable to even open his door for some air.
The neighbour also sprays some liquid every evening from his doorstep in the direction of Rafael's unit.
Rafael told AsiaOne that this neighbour has been hoarding items along the common corridor since he moved into the unit over two years ago and kept making excuses to avoid moving them.
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"He told me that he was putting all that stuff outside so that the old man from the next unit would have something to grab on to if he felt faint along the corridor," Rafael said.
"But I was thinking, if the old man was to grab onto any items outside, wouldn't they all topple over together with him?"
Rafael said he first reported the neighbour for obstructing the corridor to the Tanjong Pagar Town Council in September 2022, and subsequently lodged more reports until December 2023.
According to Rafael, the town council stuck warning notices on the neighbour's items before they eventually removed the items on Dec 7, 2023.
On the same evening, Rafael heard the neighbour kicking up a fuss about the matter while speaking to another neighbour.
Rafael's home electricity was abruptly turned off from the outside shortly after.
"Who else but him? I've since installed a CCTV camera outside," Rafael said.
A week later, the neighbour started to leave food to rot in the corridor — starting with an oily concoction left under a stool outside his own unit.
He then allegedly progressed to hanging rotten food in containers on the wall facing Rafael's door.
When a reporter from Shin Min interviewed Rafael's neighbour, the man admitted that he had a strained relationship with Rafael.
"I know they were the ones who reported it to the town council, but I put did not put the rotten food outside because of them," he said.
He said that the putrid-smelling items were meant to chase away the stray cats who come into his unit.
"Previously there was one stray cat that came into my house and defecated, that's why I started spraying insecticide outside my home, because cats are sensitive to smells."
However, Rafael told Shin Min that the rotten food has not deterred the stay cats.
CCTV footage seen by AsiaOne also shows this neighbour spraying liquid from his doorstep towards Rafael's unit on multiple occasions.
Rafael told AsiaOne that his gate now has spots which he cannot wipe off due to the liquid stains.
According to Rafael, the neighbour switched from spraying pesticide to spraying an unknown liquid from an unmarked bottle as of Tuesday.
"I had this assumption that it could even be pee in there," Rafael added.
Rafael said that he's considering going to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals to lodge a report.
In response to AsiaOne's queries, Shirley Aloysius, public relations manager for Tanjong Pagar Town Council, said that the town council is aware of the elderly resident's issues and has been working with the grassroots to try to reach out to him since December, 2023.
However, the elderly resident is not contactable.
"We are working with the grassroots leaders to attempt to engage this resident and see how we can help him," she added.
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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com