Woman says maid yanked her toddler by the arm, used her address to buy jewellery

After hearing her one-year-old daughter crying in the room, a woman was shocked to discover that her helper had yanked the toddler's arm. 

The woman, who only wanted to be known as Lee, told AsiaOne that the incident took place in her Jurong West home on May 9. 

Lee had hired the 25-year old Indonesian maid through an agency in March. 

"She usually helps to put the baby to bed in our bedroom. That night, I heard my daughter crying so I pulled out the CCTV to check," said 38-year-old Lee, who also has a four-year-old son. 

CCTV footage from Lee's bedroom showed that the maid was trying to coax the toddler to sleep at about 8.30pm. 

When the girl refused to sleep and started fidgeting, the helper tried flipping her onto her side before roughly pulling her arm to carry her. 

Lee said she confronted the maid about her actions, but the latter denied being rough with the toddler, saying that she does the same to her own children. 

"It was only after I showed her the CCTV footage that she admitted she was being rough," said Lee, who also told her maid that it could also be a potential police case. 

Maid purchased jewellery using employer's address

On May 10, the maid told Lee that she wanted to return home to take care of her own children. Lee agreed, but said that she needed at least a month to find a replacement. 

In June, she found a receipt from a gold shop in City Plaza on the floor in her house.

The receipt showed that her maid had purchased a gold chain and pendant for $1,004 on a four-month instalment plan using Lee's address on April 14. 

Lee told AsiaOne that she did not give her helper consent for her address to be used for the purchase. 

"When I asked her how she found the gold shop, she said that she heard of it through a friend, but I've noticed that she's on TikTok quite often and I suspect she saw the shop's ad on the platform." 

A week after discovering the receipt, Lee went to the shop and asked what would happen to the remaining instalments if her maid was going back to Indonesia. The shop's manager told Lee that her household would be responsible for the payments. 

Lee then asked the helper to return the gold chain and requested that the shop manager block her address in their system. 

"A lot of maids do this nowadays, they might purchase things using their employer's address without consent," she told AsiaOne, adding that she wanted to caution other families who employ helpers. 

Her helper eventually returned to Indonesia in July, and she has made filed a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower. 

Lee has also found a replacement.

"This time we hired someone who is slightly older, and we make sure that a family member is present when she takes care of my daughter. 

"We never leave her alone with the kids." 

READ ALSO: Maid caught on camera slapping, hitting 1-year-old boy almost every day

claudiatan@asiaone.com