In a time of financial difficulty, one might be tempted to turn to certain “easier” ways of temporarily getting funds… like loansharks.
But it’s really not a good idea, no matter how friendly those sharks might seem in the first place.
It is unknown if or how much a house in Seletar owed to the meat craving fishes, but I’d wager they won’t want to be dealing with the sharks anymore after this incident.
Loanshark Set Fire To Front Yard Of House
The SPF was alerted to the fire at a private residential property along Saraca Road on 25 April 2020.
Apparently, an improvised molotov cocktail was used to light the fire, and a debtor’s note was also left behind.
(It is unknown what form the note is left in, but I assume it is not paper since it would be pretty stupid and hilarious to leave fire beside paper.)
On 28 April, a 23-year-old man was identified and arrested following investigations.
He will be charged for loanshark harassment on 30 April. SPF is also looking at possible safe distancing breaches.
I guess that partially explains the more creative ways like ordering food loansharks are operating to get back their money.
First offenders found guilty of loanshark harassment may be fined between S$5,000 and S$50,000, jail of up to five years, and caning of up to six strokes.
Molotovs In The Past
Obviously, this isn’t the first time Molotovs had been used by loan sharks, but previous incidents might prove interesting and reveal some patterns.
Case 1: Interest Propelled Few Hundred Dollar Debt Into Thousands
In an incident a whole decade ago in 2009, an 18-year-old had borrowed S$500 from loansharks. On failing to pay back, two plastic bags of kerosene were thrown into his family’s home.
Two days later, two of the loanshark’s runners came and threw Molotov cocktails in.
No one was injured in this incident.
When the 18-year-old tried to pay up, he was told his debt had gone up to S$8,000 (yes, from $500) due to interest.
The 18-year-old’s guarantor, a 17-year-old secondary school student, also had his home targeted. Paint was splashed outside their flat and his family were locked in by the loansharks.
The 17-year-old was also involved in online gambling and had borrowed a few hundred dollars from loansharks before. He was unable to pay up and his father ended up having to pay more than S$8,000 to pay his son’s debt.
His phone was subsequently confiscated by his father, but the loanshark continued sending messages to tempt him to borrow money again.
Case 2: Threw Molotov To Avoid Harassment
A loanshark known as “Sunny” had threatened to harass a 20-year-old Lu if he refused to follow instructions.
In order to avoid being harassed himself, Lu followed Sunny’s instructions and prepared a Molotov then threw it at a Jurong West flat, which was a debtor’s home.
Unlike the other cases in this article where nobody was hurt, the Molotov caused a nearby electric bicycle to catch fire and explode.
The debtor’s 64-year-old father and 13-year-old sister had to climb out of the master bedroom window and stand on a ledge to escape the fire, and a 51-year-old neighbour was also taken to the hospital with burn injuries after he collapsed while trying to escape.
Restoration works to the Housing Board block were estimated to be more than S$10,000.
Lu was sentenced to six months’ reformative training.
You see a pattern yet?
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Youths Are Particularly Vulnerable
Yep. In all of the cases, youths were involved somehow. Whether because they were dumb enough to borrow money, or easily manipulated into doing the dirty work of the loansharks.
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In fact, we also covered another story of a young guy who became a loanshark runner because he couldn’t pay back the money before.
We have no idea what happened to the 23-year-old in today’s case, but I’m putting out a guess that he’s probably not the mastermind.
Sharks definitely don’t play around.