Is Yishun the most terrifying place to live in Singapore?

Every country has one: that spot where weird things keep happening, and every day feels like an episode of The Twilight Zone. In the US, it's Florida. In Australia, it's everywhere outside a city. In Singapore, it's Yishun.

Here's why Yishun is so exciting and terrifying (along with some rationalisations).

What strange things have happened in Yishun?

Some of the things that you find in Yishun are:

• Cat killings
• Cat killing (singular)
• People with stun guns
• Rat problems
• Drug syndicates
• Someone who wants your children
• Numerous murders and suicides

And many, many more. But in case you've forgotten, here's a rundown of those main ones.

1. Cat killings

There has been a spate of cat killings in Yishun, most notably from September to December 2015. Within those four months, there were 17 reported cases of cat abuse. Two suspects were later arrested, with one of them eventually charged (more on this later).

More recently, within four days in April 2021, three kittens were found dead at the same block in Yishun. What's more chilling is that dead cats have previously been found at the same block in January and October 2020.

Cats have been slit open, bludgeoned, thrown off high places, and so forth. And whatever your feelings about cats, here's why it's serious: many serial killers start by abusing defenceless animals, eventually working their way up to…well, people.

2. Cat killing (singular)

What do you do when a cat meows a lot? Feed it? Pet it? How about pick it up, and throw it off the 13th storey? In October 2015, that's exactly what someone did. He chucked a male cat off the ledge because he felt it was being noisy.

Now in his defence, the courts found him to have moderate intellectual disability, so he may not have understood what he was doing. But it didn't help that this occurred in a neighbourhood where people were already looking for a cat killer (and no, it's not him).

3. Police getting attacked with a stun gun

In January 2017, two people were spotted by the police, in their attempt to steal something from a car. Now, here's a pop quiz:

When someone who possess a loaded gun, and is trained to use it, approaches you, you should:

(a) Stop and do what he says

(b)  Attack the person with a real gun, using a stun gun

The two people in question chose option B, which promptly led to their arrest. But that's not the big issue. The big issue is how they managed to get their hands on a stun gun, when most of us can't get a bigger laser pointer past customs.

Oh wait, there were another two guys playing with a stun gun at Northpoint in August 2016. Maybe they sell a much more exotic range of goods at Yishun pasar malams or something.

4. Rat problems

Yishun has on and off rat issues. Nothing out of control, but enough to be an annoyance at times.

Maybe the cat killings explain this one.

5. Drug syndicates

111 drug traffickers were nabbed in an operation in 2016. Guess where their leader was.

That's right, he was caught with over $62,000 worth of drugs at a suspected drug store in Yishun.

And more recently, in April 2020 (yes, you read that right, it's during the Circuit Breaker), five people were arrested in Yishun. Drugs worth at least $360,000 were seized as well.

But these were comparatively small. The biggest drug dealer from Yishun may be Barry Zheng Chongde, who was involved in a $64.6 million cocaine syndicate in Australia. He was later charged in the Australian court in December 2016.

Drugs may also have been involved in an accident near Yishun MRT station. Three people were injured when someone tried to drive through a police roadblock (the police were searching the car before it happened).

It's amazing no one is writing the script for CSI: Yishun (or even a Channel 5 or Channel 8 drama called Yishun) at this point.

6. Someone who wants your children

Let's not forget that in November 2016, we had reports of a mysterious man asking for any children, via door-to-door knocking. Kind of like the most terrifying karang-guni man you've ever heard of.

This is really unfair, as any Yishun residents with pets or children now need to barricade their house. Maybe this is why so many of them have stun guns, is all we're saying.

7. Numerous murders and suicides

Enter Yishun murders in Google, and you'll receive a whole slew of search results dedicated to the subject.

Some examples are this case, this other case and the most notable is the triple murder case in 2008 committed at Blk 349 Yishun Street 11.

Aside from murders, suicides are depressingly also a common occurrence in Yishun.

Why do these things happen in Yishun?

Our guess is population density. Yishun is around 21 square kilometres, with a population of 221,610 as of 2020.

This translates to an estimated population density of 10,639 per square kilometre. Compare it to Bedok (12,777 per square kilometre), or Sengkang (23,519 per square kilometre), and you can see it's not too packed.

Now if you want to do something covert - whether it's being a cat serial killer or smuggle drugs, it's the quieter neighbourhoods that you will move to. Yishun was emblematic of the sleepy residential enclave (until the weirdness), so you can see why a drug syndicate leader would pick the place. There were just fewer eyes to observe you.

Of course, that has since changed as Yishun's bizarre events take the spotlight. Now, the town has a reputation for all the wrong reasons.

On the bright side, not all is bad

Sure, Yishun may have its quirks, but don't let the horror stories scare you. If you take into account the relatively affordable housing and the number of amenities available at your doorstep, Yishun is a pretty great place to live.

Average resale prices here are one of the most attractive for home buyers, with plenty of other residential developments in recent times such as The Wisteria (with an average price psf of $1,201.14) and North Park Residences (with an average price psf of $1,583.37). Both of these projects have attracted a great deal of attention from property observers.

HDB resale flats in Yishun are also generally more affordable, with four-room flats averaging $450,000 in January 2022 - below the overall median price of $490,000 for this flat type.

If you're looking for a new launch condo in Yishun, there's the North Gaia EC to look forward to. It's slated to launch in the first half of 2022.

The other new development is the May 2022 Yishun build-to-order (BTO), which is expected to be one of the more exciting sites in the upcoming launch.

ALSO READ: 2 HDB executive apartments in Yishun cross $1m mark

This article was first published in 99.co.