An irate customer, upset that her private-hire vehicle (PHV) driver had taken what she deemed the “wrong route” to her destination, made 3 calls to the police before arranging for two men to wait for the PHV driver and confront him as he dropped her off.

The driver, 40-year-old Ken, said the incident occurred when he picked up a female customer at Block 476A Upper Serangoon Road on Friday, 10 Nov, around 7pm.

Since the woman wanted to go to Jalan Besar, Ken took the expressway. This is when the woman began kicking up a fuss: She kept scolding me and asking why I took the expressway. She called me ‘retarded’ and said that I wasted her time.”

The woman then warned him: “when I ask you to turn left, you better not turn right.”

Angry over the woman’s poor treatment of him, Ken scolded her back and told her that he would send her back to where she had been picked up from and that she can book another ride from there. Upset, the woman made two calls to the police.

When Ken reached his destination, 2 men – the woman’s husband and his “backup” – were waiting to confront him at the carpark. The two men kept asking Ken to open his car door so they could speak to him.

Ken decided to accede to their request, but only after making 2 calls to the police himself to report the matter.

When Ken flipped the switched to open his car doors, the woman’s husband got into the backseat while his friend sat in the front passenger seat.

The friend then pinned Ken down and the 3 men became embroiled in a brawl within the vehicle, leaving Ken with an injured arm.

Police officers arrived at the scene and broke up the fight. Ken lodged a police complaint and it is understood that the woman’s husband also made a police report of his own.

Investigations are ongoing.