A 40-year-old employer of a domestic helper is seeking her whereabouts after she ran away from the family with her passport on 5 Jan.
The 32-year-old helper from Indonesia owed thousands of dollars to unlicensed moneylenders and had run away a day after confessing to her employer about the debts.
Left with no choice, the employer has made a police report and put out a post on Facebook seeking her whereabouts.
40-year-old Ika Lestari explained that the night before the post, her helper, 32-year-old Maemanah, had confessed to her about her borrowing money from unlicensed moneylenders.
Source: Facebook
Ms Ika had been contacted by them via WhatsApp and threatened.
She had been unaware of her helper’s debts until the threatening messages came in.
Source: Facebook
Fearing for her children’s safety, she and her husband paid off the full debt plus interest, which amounted to S$3,950.
The couple also thought up an instalment plan to offset her salary in the next few months.
But the next day on 5 Jan, while Ms Ika was at work and her children were in school, her helper stole her passport from a locked drawer and ran away.
Source: Facebook
She noted that her helper had used a knife that she later discarded to open the drawer.
“My poor boys had to come home to no one and I had to rush home from work,” Ms Ika said. One of her sons had told her that no one was home.
Her husband saw through the CCTV installed at home that Maemanah left the house dressed in a green top and beige headscarf, Ms Ika told Today Online.
Source: Facebook
After this, Ms Ika made a police report and also terminated Maemanah’s work permit with the Ministry of Manpower.
She noted in the police report that she made the report both in order to find her, as well as for the loan shark harassment.
Ms Ika said that her family has been very kind to Maemanah and previously gave her pay in advance when she needed money for family matters back home.
She told Berita Harian that she’d had four helpers previously, but never faced an issue like this before.
Ms Ika told Today Online that the police advised her to ignore the harassment from the unknown people, which continues.
She then spent more than S$2,000 to install a digital lock for both their house door and gate.
It is possible that Maemanah still owes money to the moneylenders. She may also still be in Singapore as her work permit was cancelled and Ms Ika had made a police report.
Ms Ika continues to seek Maemanah’s whereabouts and urges the public to keep a lookout for her.
Also read: S’pore Helper Steals Employer’s S$64K Patek Philippe Watch To Repay Friend’s Debt, Jailed 21 Months
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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