'It even paused my music': Monkey snatches phone from student in Ngee Ann Poly and refuses to return

A 'robbery' recently occurred at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in broad daylight.

The brazen perpetrator? A monkey.

"I was walking when the monkey came out of nowhere and snatched my phone out of my hands," said a student about the 'crime' that happened on campus.

"I waited one to two minutes to see if he'll give it back, but he just kept playing with my phone and took off my casing by biting it. It even paused my music."

An Instagram video shared by Sgfollowsall on Friday (July 26) showed a student staring down at the animal.

"After a while it got scared when I moved a bit, and tried to scare me off which made it drop my phone," he said in the captions. "So I scared it back further away from my phone until it was far away and that's how I got it back."

The video has since garnered over 80,000 views.

In the comments, netizens were tickled by the monkey encounter.

"Probably developing the concept of barter," a netizen said.

"Relax, it just want to scroll TikTok and upload some content," another added.

AsiaOne has contacted the student for more information.

The National Parks Board (NParks)'s guidelines for encounters with monkeys recommend staying calm and quiet, avoiding any sudden movements and direct eye contact with the monkey.

Back away slowly instead of turning away and running, and avoid the area until the monkey is gone.

Never try to hit the monkey and if there is an object that is attracting it, hide it or throw it away.

NParks also recommends to use backpacks instead of plastic bags in parks and nature reserves as monkeys associate plastic bags with food.

ALSO READ: No photos please: Macaques at NTU lunge at woman trying to get close

chingshijie@asiaone.com