Upset that the coffee he ordered had spilt, a 32-year-old man in Singapore called the food delivery rider back.
Instead of asking nicely, the man wielded a knife against the rider and patted the knife multiple times on the rider’s cheek.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, the court has sentenced the man to eight weeks in jail.
On Wednesday (14 June), the man, identified only as Firdaus in the report, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal intimidation.
The court also took into account another charge of using abusive words to cause distress when passing the sentence.
This was after an incident on 8 Aug 2022, 1.45am, along the corridor on the 13th storey of Block 858 Jurong West Street 81.
Firdaus had ordered some food and coffee on a food delivery application.
When the delivery rider, 28, reached the unit, he left the order at the door. Soon after, the rider received a call from Firdaus, asking why his coffee was spilt.
Firdaus then accused the rider of trying to cheat him of his money, using expletives against the rider and threatening that he would hit him.
To appease the unhappy customer, the rider separately purchased two packets of coffee for Firdaus.
When the rider returned to Firdaus’ unit, the latter took out a 20cm knife from the kitchen and started swearing at him.
He even patted the rider’s cheek with the knife while scolding him, and threw the two packets of coffee on the ground.
The rider apologised multiple times to the customer and lodged a police report after the incident.
This whole incident was recorded on tape by Firdaus’ family. The one-minute and 12 seconds clip eventually became evidence against Firdaus in court.
It was not clear why his family recorded the incident.
The prosecution initially sought jail time of one to two months for Firdaus. This was to set an example against the abuse of delivery riders.
Firdaus did not engage a defence lawyer. Instead, he represented himself in court and pleaded guilty.
He expressed remorse that he should not have threatened the rider with a knife, and hoped for a light sentence.
During sentencing, the judge said Firdaus had overreacted in this situation, and his behaviour was unacceptable.
The judge added that the eight-week jail sentence is reasonable and considerably conservative. He hopes that Firdaus will learn from this incident and not error again.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao and Jon Tyson on Unsplash. Image on the right for illustration purposes only.
Police are searching for the e-bike rider.
She was cremated at Mandai Crematorium on Sunday (16 March).
His father found him on the street and reported the incident to the police.
The incident is believed to be due to a bird strike.
It was raining heavily when the incident occurred.
Police have yet to press charges as they deemed the incident as a domestic matter.