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Hawker sliced off customer's thumb in row over $2 bowl of noodles
08 Jun 2010
Source: The New Paper
HE insists he is not a fussy eater.
All he wanted was for his chilli to be separated from his noodles and for the noodles to be cut.
So when his wife told him that the hawker had grumbled about his requests, Mr Chan Seng Chai, 57, was outraged.
He confronted the hawker, Sim Yong Ha, 66, at his fishball noodles stall at Block 79, Telok Blangah Drive.
The confrontation became heated and Mr Chan grabbed a plastic chair, intending to swing it at Sim.
Sim grabbed a chopper from his stall to block the chair, according to court documents.
He ended up cutting Mr Chan’s left hand.
The impact sliced off Mr Chan’s left thumb and landed Sim in court.
Yesterday, Sim was sentenced to a day’s jail and fined $10,000. He had pleaded guilty last month to one charge of causing grievous hurt.
Mr Chan’s wife preserved the thumb in a bag of ice and the couple rushed to Singapore General Hospital, where the thumb was re-attached.
When asked if he was angry with Sim, Mr Chan, now unemployed, told The New Paper: “What’s there to be angry about? It’s so stupid, just because of the chilli.
“I should have just ignored the fellow (Sim), just walked off. I really don’t understand why it happened.
“I also don’t want to put him in a difficult situation. He goes his way, I go mine.”
Was he a regular at Sim’s stall?
“I don’t go to that food centre often, but I’ve been there before.
“I don’t understand what was wrong with him (Sim). I ate from his stall before, all the while (making the same requests), no problem. I’m not a fussy eater.”
So why did his wife ask for his noodles to be cut and for the chilli to be separated?
He answered: “An old man like me...it’s difficult to eat. Am I asking for too much? Is it too much?
”
Mr Chan said that he quit his part-time job because of his injury. He declined to describe his job.
“My hand is okay, not 100 per cent normal. It can’t be 100 per cent normal, maybe 70 to 75 per cent,” said Mr Chan.
The court was told that Mr Chan’s wife had ordered a bowl of fishball noodles from Sim’s stall at about 6.30am on Sept 30 last year.
Complied with Requests
Mrs Chan made her requests, to which Sim commented that she should not be so demanding because the bowl of noodles cost only $2. He did, however, agree to do as she asked.
When Mrs Chan returned to where her husband was seated, she told him what had happened.
Mr Chan confronted Sim about his earlier remark and the two men started arguing.
Sim commented again that the bowl of noodles had cost only $2.
That was when Mr Chan lifted a plastic chair to the level of his head.
Sim picked up a chopper with an 18cm-long blade.
It hit Mr Chan’s left hand, severing his thumb.
Sim was hit by the chair and had cuts on his right index finger and elbow.
Yesterday morning, Sim, accompanied by four relatives, looked solemn as he awaited his sentence.
But he looked less serious when District Judge Ronald Gwee sentenced him to a token imprisonment term of one day and fined him $10,000.
Standing in the dock, Sim, a father of four, bowed and said “thank you, thank you” to the judge.
Judge Gwee said that, going by the events leading to the incident, the victim was the aggressor in a very minor matter.
The judge noted that Mr Chan had shouted vulgarities and gesticulated at Sim.
Calling the case “exceptional”, Judge Gwee added that it was because Sim feared for his own safety and the safety of his wife that he made the “rash choice” of picking up the chopper.
After the judge left the courtroom, Sim hugged his daughter in an emotional and tearful embrace.
Hawkers from the food centre told The New Paper yesterday afternoon that they have not seen Sim or his wife since the incident last year.
Their stall has been taken over by someone else.
Mr Hoi Kok Weng, whose stall was next to Sim’s, said in Mandarin: “Their stall was popular because the food was good and their noodles were only $2. They’ve been here for way over 10 years.”
He described Sim as “very quiet”, adding that “he always kept to himself”.
Commented Mr Hoi: “(They) were a good team – he did the cooking; his wife served.
“Even before I had my own stall here, I ate at their stall regularly. It’s a pity.”
Most of the other hawkers had not seen the incident because they start business at about 10am. Mr Sim used to start at about 5am.
A drinks stall owner said he was around at the time, but did not see what happened because he was busy inside his stall.
He said: “I only realised something had happened when a customer rushed to my stall and asked for ice. I gave her a packet of ice.
“When I came out, I saw some blood (on the floor).”
The stallholders agreed that it was common for customers to have special requests, but most are simple ones like separating the chilli from noodles.
A hawker who declined to be named said: “When we go to other food centres, we are customers too. There’s a certain way we like our food, so we make requests. We understand that.
“But there are some who are very fussy and make many demands.”
