Woman flings battery out of 7th-floor window in 'moment of anger', ends up injuring stranger

Frustrated that she almost fell because of a battery on the floor, an elderly woman flung the offending item out of her seventh-floor window. 

And as luck would have it, that battery hit another elderly woman, injuring her. 

The victim, surnamed Pan, told Shin Min Daily News that the incident occurred last Wednesday (Oct 5), at about 7.30pm. 

Pan said she was chatting with her friends at a pavilion near a HDB block along Boon Lay Drive after they had finished their walk when she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her left shoulder. The 70-year-old then spotted a battery on the ground from the corner of her eye. 

Pan's friend then noticed someone hurriedly closing the window of one of the HDB units at a nearby block. 

The angry duo then headed up to that unit to question the occupants but a woman who answered the door denied having done so, saying that she was having dinner with her husband at that time.  

Peeved that she was unable to locate the culprit, Pan said she filed a police report over the incident. 

She also told the Chinese daily that the impact of the falling battery caused her shoulder to swell. 

Couldn't locate victim

Guilty about what she had done, the woman who earlier denied throwing the object, admitted to Shin Min on Wednesday (Oct 12) that she was the one who threw the battery out of the window. 

The woman, surnamed Zhong, 68, said that when Pan turned up at her house, she didn't admit to the deed as she was afraid.

She turned herself in at the police station on the same day and also said that she offered to compensate Pan for her medical expenses. 

Zhong explained that she was replacing the batteries of her flashlight and dropped one of them, Shin Min reported. 

The battery then rolled under her furniture, which Zhong tried to retrieve with a broom. While doing so, Zhong said she almost slipped. 

"In a moment of anger, I threw the battery out of the window," she confessed.

Zhong's husband said they have also tried to locate Pan to apologise, but have been unsuccessful in finding her.

Responding to Shin Min's queries, the police confirmed that a report was made, and that a 68-year-old woman is assisting with investigations. 

Just last month, a man took to Facebook to expose his grandmother throwing rubbish out of their home window in Aljunied. 

The man, who goes by Tony Ng, posted a video of his grandmother chucking waste out of the kitchen window on Facebook group Complaint Singapore, adding that he was at his wits' end about his grandmother's habit. 

He had previously advised her against littering, but his words fell on deaf ears. 

Unfortunately for Ng, he didn't get the support he wanted as netizens ended up attacking him for 'publicly shaming' his granny. 

Under the Environmental Public Health Act, any individual who commits a littering offence is liable on conviction to a court fine of up to $2,000 for a first conviction, $4,000 for a second conviction and $10,000 for the third and subsequent convictions.

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claudiatan@asiaone.com