Woman stands outside Mustafa Centre to chope parking space, yells ‘Reserved, reserved!’ when other vehicles move close

SINGAPORE: “Chope” is a uniquely Singaporean trait, people use tissues, their aunties, or even their own selves to reserve a space when seats or parking slots are limited.

The latest example of this is a woman who stood in a parking space in front of Mustafa Centre as soon as a vehicle left it. The woman, in a grey dress and a black hijab, had presumably been waiting for the driver of the white van to leave, and as it makes its way into the traffic, she follows it, only to stand in the parking space, while using her mobile phone.

A dash cam video posted on SG Road Vigilante shows her standing with her arms folded as she talked on the phone.

And when a driver tried to back up into the space, she can be heard yelling, “Reserved, reserved!” and she refuses to budge from her position.

The driver of the car that had tried to park where the woman was standing, and from where the dash cam footage had come, posted the video of the woman earlier this week, with the following caption.

“16jul2023 1750hrs

syed alwi road mustafa centre

lady stand on the parking lot to chope the spot

quoted

Lady ‘reserved’ carpark slot immediately after van leaves. Did not want to hold up the long line behind and just moved on.”

Netizens commenting on the video told the driver he should have taken the space anyway.

Another wrote,

/TISG

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