'I felt threatened': Poultry vendor in Boon Lay market calls police after rival brandishes wooden stick

Two poultry vendors got into an argument in Boon Lay Place Market, leading to one calling the police after the other brandished a wooden stick, Shin Min Daily News reported on Saturday (March 30).

On Friday morning, a 36-year-old poultry vendor surnamed Hong was attending to a customer when the daughter of a neighbouring poultry vendor came over.

She was furious, Hong recalled, as she slammed her hand on the glass of his poultry display, alleging that their customers were being poached by Hong. 

He added in a statement to Shin Min: "Her father later came out with a wooden stick and threatened to hit my employees. I called the police because I felt threatened."

In a video seen by the Chinese publication, a woman dressed in black can be seen hurling vulgarities in front of his poultry stall and hitting the glass display of his poultry freezer with her hand before returning to her stall, cursing all the while.

According to Hong, his relationship with the other vendor had never been good, and the latter had also gotten into arguments with other stalls in the area.

Hong had recently gone from selling frozen poultry to selling fresh poultry, and he believes this contributed to the rising animosity from his rival.

"They kept complaining about trivial things such as our machines being noisy or claiming that our things are blocking the aisles," he told Shin Min.

"Talking it out with them is useless, they never listen. I just hope incidents like this don't happen again in the future."

Father wielded wooden rod to protect her, rival's daughter says

The daughter of the competing stall, surnamed Sun, 25, explained to Shin Min that their customers had begun to flock over to Hong's stall because they believed the two stalls were under the same business.

This is because one of Sun's employees had moved over to work for Hong in March after being fired for having a bad attitude.

She also told Shin Min that a man who was patronising Hong's stall at the time had been a customer at their stall before, so she wanted to clarify that they were separate businesses.

"I knocked on the glass display in the heat of the moment," she admitted, adding that she would be more mindful of her actions moving forward

She also explained that her father had brandished the wooden stick not to threaten Hong and his employees but to protect her.

Sun also denied allegations of any animosity between them and other vendors in the area.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com