'He needs help': Video of boy stealing granny underwear along HDB corridor sparks debate

Was this video meant to "create awareness" or shame the boy?

In a now-deleted Facebook video that was first shared by Lakdiah Sonuy on Monday (July 18), it showed a boy loitering around the laundry racks along the corridors of a HDB flat at Woodlands Drive 60.

Sensing that the coast was clear, he reached out to swiftly steal an underwear – in less than five seconds.

"Beware of this little b******," Lakdiah wrote, adding that the undergarment belonged to his grandmother.

Lakdiah has since deleted the 15-second clip, but it was reshared on several social media accounts.

In the comments, several netizens were amused by this young panty thief.

"Desperate times calls for desperate measures," Nur Batrisyia, who is Lakdiah's wife, quipped.

On the other hand, there were others who felt that sharing the video online was unnecessary.

"He looks like a young boy. He needs help not shamed," a netizen said.

But Batrisyia pointed out that their purpose of sharing the video was to "create awareness".

She said that they are not responsible for other people "commenting here or shaming this boy". 

In another suspicious act that was caught in 4K, a man was seen in CCTV footage in January trying on a woman's shoes outside her home without permission.

The video has since garnered more 600,000 views on TikTok.

And last January, an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore was jailed for six weeks for stealing women's underwear from hostels.

chingshijie@asiaone.com