Man jailed nine weeks for throwing bike from 15th storey
A butcher who threw an ofo bicycle from the 15th-storey corridor of a block of flats in Upper Boon Keng Road last Thursday was jailed for nine weeks yesterday.
Selamat Mohamed Ali, 47, is the first person to be sentenced for throwing a shared bicycle from height.
A second charge of dishonestly misappropriating the same $300 ofo bicycle was taken into consideration in sentencing.
The court heard that Madam Rajamanickam Jayalakshimi, 42, and her husband were sorting newspapers at the void deck of Block 11, Upper Boon Keng Road at 5.36am that day when she heard a crash about 5m behind them. She turned to find a badly damaged yellow bicycle lying on the ground in front of the block.
The ofo bicycle was one of two that had been placed at the 15th-storey corridor by ofo employee Tan Han Tiong, who lives in the block, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum. Mr Tan's job is to collect bicycles that belong to the bike-sharing company across Singapore.
He could not return them that night because no vehicle was available at that point to transport them. Mr Tan last saw the two bicycles intact at the 15th-floor lift lobby the night before.
At around 5am on June 22, Selamat was on the way home after a drinking session at an Orchard Towers pub when he made a detour for the 15th-floor lift landing to rest. He lives in the block.
DPP Lum said that, after spotting the bicycles, Selamat took one of them and threw it over the corridor parapet.
Police later found him sleeping at the 15th-storey lift lobby and arrested him.
The case was the third last month in which people abused shared bicycles.
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