Claw machines have always been popular in Singapore. These machines, which can even be spotted at pasar malams, are in many ways objects of passion for their fans.
Anyone who has played with one, though, would realise that actually managing to successfully snag a toy from one of these machines can be a pain. However, this frustration doesn’t justify actually breaking into a machine to get a toy.
On Monday (2 Mar), a man was caught on CCTV doing just that — breaking the window of a claw machine in Geylang, next to a female companion. While the motivation for doing so is unclear, one toy ended up being taken.
A worried netizen, who is evidently the owner of the machine, took to Facebook to look for the culprit.
In the CCTV footage, which has a timestamp of 6.44am, the man can be seen using what looks like keys to pick at the lock of the claw machine, with little success. He then walks away.
In the meantime, the woman can be seen fiddling around with the joystick after placing money in the machine.
The man wasn’t done, though — he then returned with an object that looked like a rod.
While the woman continued fiddling with the joystick, he used the rod to pry the window open. Finally, the glass of the machine broke because of the pressure, the shards raining on them before falling to the ground.
Shocked, the woman backed away from the machine, with the man following behind.
However, she proceeded to kick the toy that fell out away from the machine, walking away with it.
Later, a photo of the aftermath of the incident was shared by the machine’s owner on Facebook.
After the horrified owner posted the CCTV footage and photos online, what was possibly more surprising than the incident itself was that the woman in the video responded and even threw her male companion under the bus!
Pinning the blame on him, she even posted his photo.
She claimed that she did not know that the man was trying to pry open the machine with the rod, pointing out that she had put in money to try to catch a toy and that she looked shocked when the window broke.
She also explained that she took the toy because her blood had gotten on it.
The owner managed to contact the woman, telling her that the joystick, glass and lock had been damaged.
He suggested that she compensate him for the damages, and get the man to pay her his share later.
However, the woman said she was unable to reach the man and asked to pay only half of the cost, but was rejected.
The owner warned her that if there was no reply by the end of Monday (2 Mar), he would call the police.
At 8.47pm, he gave an update on the situation in a Facebook comment, claiming that the woman had changed her mind on restitution, saying she was innocent.
There have been no further updates on this situation so far.
As the entire incident has been caught on CCTV and posted online, it’s tough for the culprit to escape in this case. The only way this can be settled is if he either owns up and pays for the damage, or receives some form of punishment.
Hopefully, the machine’s owner will manage to get compensation for the damage caused to his property.
Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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