Recently, a woman in Singapore was accosted by a stranger on a public bus.
Another passenger had allegedly started pushing and touching her out of the blue, which caused her to retaliate. A man also stepped in to defend her.
The woman documented her unpleasant experience and shared the footage on TikTok.
On Tuesday (21 Feb), the OP, Hyzelle, explained that she was on her way home on a crowded bus when a woman allegedly started touching her.
As Hyzelle filmed the situation, she repeatedly told the stranger to stop touching her.
When she flipped the camera, the woman shoved her hand into Hyzelle’s phone and retorted, “Then don’t take my picture.”
The back-and-forth argument continued briefly before Hyzelle warned the woman to get her hands away from her.
After which, the woman retaliated by saying, “Then you get away from me.”
The video continued as the woman’s outstretched palm blocked the OP’s phone camera. Soon enough, another passenger also told the woman to put her hand down.
“Put your hand down and stop causing a scene for everybody,” he said.
As a compromise, he told the woman that she would stop filming her if the latter put her hand down.
Speaking to MS News, the OP, Hyzelle, said the incident happened around 6pm on Monday (20 Feb).
She was on bus service 985, headed towards Choa Chu Kang. As the bus was crowded and no seats were available, she had to stand beside the woman’s seat.
While wearing headphones and using her phone, she felt someone had touched her arm. However, she brushed it off as an accidental touch and ignored it.
Hyzelle pointed out that as she had just gotten off from another ride on which she was mostly asleep, she was feeling groggy. She was also sniffling as the bus was cold.
It seemed that the woman did not respond kindly to her presence, and soon after, she felt she was touched again.
The woman allegedly started to raise her voice at Hyzelle. As she did not want to retaliate and embarrass herself in front of other passengers, Hyzelle chose to ignore the woman at first.
When she sniffled another time, the woman pushed her arm that was holding onto the pole.
When the woman started pushing her away repeatedly, Hyzelle, who was texting her boyfriend on Telegram then, lost her cool. She retaliated by telling the woman to stop touching her and started recording on the app.
The latter reportedly became more aggressive and put her hands close to Hyzelle’s face as she tried to snatch her phone away.
“I couldn’t move away even if I wanted to because the bus was fully crowded,” Hyzelle said.
As Hyzelle was still wearing her headphones, she could not completely hear what the woman was saying.
“She cursed at me and probably said something along the lines of telling me to wear a mask if I’m sick and it would be better if I moved away from her.”
Hyzelle also confirmed that an English man stepped in to defend her, and the woman started to mock him, asking if he was happy to be a “hero”.
Hyzelle said she stopped engaging with the woman after a while, as her destination was two stops away.
Asked if she would lodge a police report, she said she felt the incident did not warrant an arrest, and she was unharmed.
“Perhaps my reaction wasn’t the best way to resolve the issue,” she admitted.
Although the man was quite far from her, Hyzelle said she would also like to applaud him for defending her.
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Featured image adapted from Singapore Buses on Flickr & @med2sa_ on TikTok.
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