CCTV footage showing a patron at Syed Alwi coffeeshop deftly pocketing what appears to be a stranger’s wallet has been going viral online. The video was posted on social media by Facebook user Zahrin Zaimi who wrote:
“This asshole stole my friends wallet just now at yishun syed coffee shop. Found on the floor dunno how to check to return it. Pick it up and put inside his pocket!! Help me make him viral. Knn.”
In the surveillance footage that the people running Syed Alwi coffeeshop shared with Zahrin, a man appears to finish paying for a meal he seems to have shared with two other patrons. As the waiter and his companions leave, the man bends down to pick up what looks like a wallet and deftly pockets it.
As the CCTV footage plays, a few men who seem to be the employees at the coffeeshop provide commentary in Tamil and express their shock that the man did not ask the people at the table behind him whether the wallet is theirs:
This asshole stole my friends wallet just now at yishun syed coffee shop. Found on the floor dunno how to check to return it. Pick it up and put inside his pocket!! Help me make him viral. Knn.
Posted by Zahrin Zaimi on Sunday, 30 September 2018
Zahrin’s post, which she published last Monday, quickly went viral with over 100,000 views on social media.
While several netizens excoriated the man, some others pointed out that it is not totally clear whether the man even picked up a wallet from the ground and whether he did not just pick up and pocket something that belonged to him.
Some were also more sympathetic and said that Zahrin should have just approached the police instead of shaming the man online:
