Youth filmed throwing ofo bike off block of flats; police investigating

Bike-sharing service ofo has lodged a police report after one of its bicycles was thrown off a block of flats in Balestier.

In a video that circulated online yesterday, a male youth was seen lifting the bicycle over the ledge before letting it go.

The bicycle was later found on the roof of the bin centre at Block 116B, Jalan Tenteram, which is level with the second storey.

It was removed by a worker from the Jalan Besar Town Council yesterday afternoon.

It is not clear from which storey of the 31-storey block the youth dropped the bicycle, but police officers were seen gathering evidence on the 30th storey when The New Paper went down yesterday afternoon.

They later took the mangled bicycle away.

Residents of the block said the incident happened around 12.30am yesterday and that they heard noises, which startled them.

A housewife living on the second storey, who gave her name only as Madam Anees, 40, said : "I was sleeping when I was woken up by the sound, but I did not dare to go out to see," she said.

Mrs Jana, 33, a photographer who lives on the eighth storey, said she found out about the incident from the video posted in a Facebook group made up of residents in their estate.

"My husband said he has seen him around here before," Mrs Jana said, referring to the youth in the video who threw the bicycle down.

"It is horrible what he did, and he certainly deserves to be jailed as the falling bicycle could have killed someone."

An ofo spokesman said the company is working with the authorities on the matter, and it is considering legal action against the youth in the video.

It said: "We are still in the midst of working closely with the authorities to investigate further.

"From there, we will evaluate to determine the most appropriate course of legal action to take."

This is the latest case of bicycle abuse to come to light through social media.

In April, a video showed a youth tossing an ofo bicycle before stomping on it.

Last month, an oBike was reported to have been found dumped in a canal in Punggol.

There have been numerous other reports of such bikes being vandalised, chained up and even sold online.

Despite this, an ofo spokesman said that less than 1 per cent of its current fleet in Singapore is mishandled.

Mr Elgin Ee, general manager of oBike, said he was shocked by the most recent incident.

"We are appalled by this abusive and killer litter act," he said.

"We condemn such actions and hope justice can be served to send out a strong message and deter similar incidents in future."