A woman who quarrelled with a security officer at Eastpoint Mall and threatened to make him lose his job is facing public backlash.
The dispute appears to have occurred because the woman was prevented from entering the mall's nursing room to fill her daughter’s water bottle until she showed her baby to him through the intercom camera.
A viral video, initially posted by Instagram user joseph_twj on Monday (July 13), begins in the Fire Control Centre where a security guard is seen refusing to give a woman filming him his name.
He said: "You're not a police officer or something to ask for my name. I'm a security officer."
In their argument, the woman accuses him of speaking rudely while the officer retorts that she is no better, describing her as "yaya", or colloquial for arrogant.
Incensed, she proceeds to threaten him: "I make sure you don't have your job."
In a complaint letter to the mall, the woman wrote that she had made a passing comment to a family member about the situation being "stupid", to which the security guard allegedly replied "you then stupid" over the intercom, reported Stomp.
The letter also claimed that the officer "acted aggressively, made provocative hand gestures, threatened to call the police, and dared [the woman] to post the incident online and make him jobless".
According to Stomp, the woman has called on mall management to review the CCTV footage and intercom recordings, and launch a formal investigation.
The Instagram account has since become private.
Stomp reported that the video was also shared on the page SgfollowsAll, but AsiaOne has verified that it is no longer there.
The video was also uploaded to Facebook group Complaint Singapore and has gained over 770,000 views and 9,900 reactions in a day.
The exchange has garnered overwhelming support for the security officer with many netizens coming to his defence and calling out the woman's "entitled" behaviour.
"Does it make you feel good to make other people lose their job?" questioned one Instagram user.
A number of other comments argued that the security guard was simply doing his job and verifying who she was before letting her in.
"From my own experience as a mum of two kids, it's a normal and mandatory thing for a security officer in malls to ask parents to show and verify our baby or child to them through the intercom camera as there have been cases whereby people misuse the nursery room for inappropriate behaviour," wrote one comment.
Another agreed, applauding the security officer for "enforcing the rules".
"Nursing rooms are meant for breastfeeding mums, pumping mums, and parents with young children. If someone presses the intercom to gain access, it’s only right that security verifies who they’re letting in," said the netizen.
AsiaOne has reached out to the Instagram account that first posted the video, Eastpoint Mall, and its owner Frasers Property for more information and comment.
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