Every now and then, a driver and a car license plate go viral in Singapore for the wrong reasons.
Last Friday night (29 Jul), a narrow lane in Upper Bukit Timah was blocked due to an ongoing argument between a black Jaguar and a black Honda Odyssey, thus holding up the lane for more than 20 minutes.
In fact, the pair required police intervention before the whole matter was resolved.
What Allegedly Happened?
News of the conflict first broke out on TikTok by user @cx_chunxuan.
In the video, it featured a man dress in a black long-sleeved shirt and white pants, standing in front of the Jaguar and calmly swiping away on his phone while a lady in a pink shirt and black dress overalls gesticulates at him from the right-hand side.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the incident happened along Cheong Chin Nam Road, just opposite of Beauty World Centre, at around 10pm.
The row of popular eateries along this particular stretch of road probably made the location easier to identify.
In the description, the original poster writes in Mandarin, “[Who said] you could unreasonably snatch a parking lot just because you drive a branded car?”
This sentence sets the first impression of what has transpired: the Jaguar steals into a parking lot that the Honda Odyssey had been intending to use.
Another TikTok video that appears to be dashcam footage from the car right behind the Jaguar supports this impression.
In the 34-second footage, a van can be vaguely perceived at the front, vacating its parking lot and joining the lane of cars. The lane moves forward slightly, and around the 29-second mark, the Jaguar turns into the empty parking lot, revealing the Honda that was clearly slanted and in mid-reverse.
Jaguar POV: Trying to Overtake the Honda
Two days later (31 Jul), the Jaguar driver decided to tell MS News his side of the story.
Apparently, he wasn’t trying to steal the parking lot, he merely mistook the space as a way to overtake the Honda Odyssey.
The Jaguar driver claims that the Honda “was not moving for a really long time” and that they weren’t at the parking lot yet.
No offence, but, one does not simply try to overtake another car when there’s only one lane and you are literally driving along a row of parking lots.
Plus, the dashcam footage, which is only 34-seconds long, clearly shows that everything happened rather quickly.
The Honda wasn’t idling around. It was going to park, until the Jaguar decided to take the spot.
The Jaguar driver also said that after he realised that he had wrongly entered the parking lot, he tried to reverse, but there was another car behind him that was blocking his way so he couldn’t.
He even goes on to say that his car’s gear selector knob got stuck, and he needed to restart the car a few times.
What a neat string of coincidences that lets him blame everything but his own decision…
Honda Driver was Allegedly Verbally Abusive
Oh, if you thought the Jaguar driver was done blaming others, he’s not.
He also told MS News that the female Honda driver had violently punched his car window.
He alleges that she started to film him and spit profanities at him, which left him no choice but to exit the vehicle to stop her from damaging the vehicle.
It’s hard to deny that the Honda driver looked pretty irate in the video.
All the while, the Jaguar drive kept his composure as they waited for the police to arrive.
When he was asked about why he held up the lane, he clarified, “I stayed where I was so I could wait for the police to come. I did not want to park nor fight for the lot with her.”
He also stated that he didn’t block the road in any way.
Uh, are you sure about that?
How the Situation was Resolved
Eventually, the police arrive to mediate.
The Jaguar reverses out of the contested parking lot and allows the Honda Odyssey to take the spot, while the Jaguar goes on to find another parking lot nearby.
The male driver elaborates that he got out of the car again later as the police wanted to take a statement.
This corroborates with an eyewitness account from Shin Min Daily News, who was quoted saying that the Jaguar stopped at another parking lot up ahead.
Given the amount of negative attention he has received, the Jaguar driver subsequently filed a police report, even noting down the captions in the videos that are purportedly pinning the blame on him, as well as other comments.
He said that he was “fearful” for his life and reputation.
Then, he divulged that the car actually belongs to his girlfriend, and he’s scared that the TikTok videos will draw unnecessary attention to her, especially since the video captured her licence plate number.
Regardless of what has been said and done, please don’t go out of your way to hunt down the car or the people involved.
Take a chill pill, seriously.
Whose side of the story do you believe?
Featured Image: TikTok (@user9395009071142)