SINGAPORE — An irate netizen took to social media to complain after seeing an older woman chope-ing a car parking space at AMK Hub shopping mall.
“The car park is not even full. Pls advise your elderly mother not to chope car park like this. It’s dangerous to herself,” wrote Facebook user Ms Choi YW on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE page on Sunday (Feb 5).
The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ms Choi, the witness of the recent incident for further comments on the matter.
Chope is the longtime and uniquely Singaporean habit of reserving a space—mostly for a table or seat at a hawker centre or other eateries, with a piece of tissue.
And at times, people have used individuals to stand in parking spaces to chope so they can park, which hasn’t always gone well with other car drivers.
“Chop tables chop parking, end up quarrel in public places, alamak so paiseh (embarrassing) leh,” one netizen who commented on Ms Choi’s post pointed out.
“Used to ask wife/gf.. now ask mother. Waiting for the first grandmother to do the act now..,” quipped another.
Another netizen chimed in that it is “shameful people will do this.”
“Is this human parking lot OR car parking lot…!!!” asked another person.
In the same vein, another wrote, “I told a lot of people. It is a car park not a human park.”
“Im sorry to hear that. Should have be more considerate to give other a chance,” wrote another.
A netizen called it a “Disgrace in public.”
Last year, a woman on the phone also received much attention for her “shameless parking chope” telling others “car coming” and refusing to budge.
A video of the incident was shared on Facebook on Sept 24, 2022, garnering over 97,000 views and shared on various profiles such as ROADS.sg.
It showed that the driver of a black vehicle was unable to park fully as a woman wearing a pink dress shirt was standing in the way.
The driver eventually got off and began recording the incident. The woman was on the phone, and she looked at the driver before saying, “Car coming.”
The man asked her to repeat what she had just said, but the woman turned her back to the camera and focused on her phone.
The woman ignored the man as he repeatedly asked, “Can you move?” /TISG