For most of us, supper’s a guilty pleasure for us to indulge in from time to time.
But for this man in Singapore, he ended up being another kind of guilty after ordering supper through food delivery.
All over (allegedly) spilled coffee.
The man, 32-year-old Mohammed Firdaus (transliterated from Hanyu pinyin), was sentenced to eight weeks in jail yesterday (14 June) after using a blade to slap a food delivery rider’s cheek.
He was charged with one count of criminal intimidation and one count of violating the Protection from Harassment Act.
Coffee Was Apparently Spilled During Delivery, Customer Accused Rider of “Scamming His Money”
Based on court documents, the incident occurred at around 1.45 am on 8 August 2022.
The accused had ordered food delivery past midnight and had it sent to his home, a 13th-storey Housing Development Board (HDB) unit at Block 858 Jurong West Street 81.
After receiving the food, the accused called the food delivery rider and said that the coffee he ordered had been spilled.
He also accused the rider of “scamming” his money by spilling the coffee.
Apart from insulting and threatening the rider, the accused also demanded that the rider appear outside his house immediately.
The accused added that if the rider did not travel back to his house, he would find the rider and beat him up.
Rider Agreed to Meet Him and Even Bought Two Kinds of Coffee to Apologise
In an attempt to try and resolve the issue, the rider agreed to return to the accused’s house.
He even bought two types of coffee to try and apologise to him as he was unsure of what type of coffee the accused had ordered.
However, once the accused saw the rider turn up at his doorstep, he went to his kitchen and took a 20 cm-long knife with him.
He then interrogated the rider and even raised the knife at the rider to slap the latter’s cheek with the blade.
This prompted the rider to apologise profusely.
Thereafter, the accused chased the rider away and threw both cups of coffee on the floor.
Food Delivery Rider Called the Police for Assistance Afterwards
After the incident, the rider called the police for assistance.
When sentencing the accused, the judge noted that it was unacceptable for the accused to threaten and intimidate the rider with a weapon.
The judge also pointed out that the accused had overreacted to a minor incident and advised him to learn from his mistake.
Unfortunately, it’s not the first time food delivery riders have been attacked.
In April, a 13-year-old punched a 45-year-old food delivery rider at Bukit Batok after the two got into an argument outside Le Quest Shopping Mall.
Last December, a Malay family beat a food delivery rider up after a loan shark ordered bak kut teh to the family’s home.