Man threatened food stall 'Ah Mei' with chopper for ignoring his calls
Wan Ting Koh
·Senior Reporter
Thu, 10 February 2022, 11:27 am·3-min read
Singapore's State Courts seen on 21 April 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
SINGAPORE — An elderly man who became fond of a female food stall assistant less than half his age became unhappy when she began ignoring him.
Abraham Lim Chew Poh, 65, threatened the woman, whom he professed to treat as a little sister, with a chopper he had bought earlier.
On another occasion, he punched the male owner of the stall next to the woman’s. In both instances, Lim, a cleaner, was intoxicated from drinking.
Lim was jailed for nine weeks on Thursday (10 February) after he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation and one count of voluntarily causing hurt. Another count of being armed with the weapon without authority was considered for his sentencing.
Harassed woman with chopper
Lim was a frequent patron at the Toa Payoh Central food court, where the 30-year-old Vietnamese woman worked at a fish ball noodle stall since 2019. He admitted that he liked the woman, whom he addressed as “Ah Mei”, which means "little sister" in Mandarin.He would often patronise the woman’s stall and buy food for her, despite her telling him not to. He eventually obtained her number and would call and message her multiple times. When she ignored him, he became upset.
On 10 October 2020, Lim drank beer at the food court at about 3pm. He consumed three to five bottles of beer and decided to go to a nearby Value$ shop to buy a chopper. The chopper was around the size of a 500ml hand sanitiser bottle, according to court documents.
He returned a few hours later and realised his beer bottles had been cleared away. Angry, he removed the packaging of the chopper he bought.
He then approached the woman, who was preparing noodles at her stall, then pointed the chopper at her. The woman was behind a glass panel.
Lim then uttered to her in Mandarin, “Ah Mei, this is for you”, causing her alarm. He was angry at her as she had no longer been answering his calls. The act was witnessed by the male owner of a ban mian stall next to the woman's stall.
Lim left a while later and the woman went to make a police report.
Punched stall owner after bearing grudge
Lim was given a 12-month conditional warning for the offence on 17 December 2020.He confessed to investigators that he threw the chopper away a day later as he was embarrassed about what he had done.
On 14 February last year, Lim passed by the food court and harassed the 32-year-old male owner of the ban mian stall. He said he bore a grudge against the owner ever since the incident with the chopper, although court documents did not specify what the grudge was.
Lim drank three bottles of beer for around three hours at a neighbouring block’s food court. As he was heading home, he walked past the food court and saw the male stall owner, who was eating. Lim then walked up to the man and told him he “was not a man” in Mandarin.
The man ignored him and continued eating. Lim walked away but returned moments later, walked up to the male stall owner and slapped the man on the left side of his face before leaving.
The man felt pain but did not seek medical treatment. His wife made a police report.
The prosecution said that Lim breached the terms of his conditional warning barely two months after it was administered to him. Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En also cited Lim’s criminal antecedents, including armed robbery extortion and drug-related offences, from 1979 until 2013.
