SINGAPORE: A French teenager made the news last month in Singapore after allegedly having licked a straw from an iJooz vending machine and then putting it back into the dispenser.
He shared a video of himself in an Instagram Story on March 12 with a caption that read that the “city is not safe.”
Eighteen-year-old Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien is a student at ESSEC Business School, a French school with campuses in several countries. He was charged on April 24 with committing mischief and being a public nuisance. If he is convicted of both charges, he could be jailed for more than two years, as well as fined thousands of dollars, or both. His parents have flown over to Singapore as the matter progressed.
Court documents say that the teen posted the video even as he was aware that it “would or would probably cause annoyance to the public.”
He was offered S$5,000 bail after the incident, and his case will be heard again in court on May 29, although he has been permitted to leave Singapore on May 2 to go to the Philippines for an internship, with the condition that he stays contactable. He is scheduled to return on May 25.
After the incident, iJooz said that it replaced all 500 straws in the machine involved in the incident, and sanitation protocols were carried out.
ESSEC Business School is also carrying out internal investigations on the matter.
While the initial incident made the news in Singapore, as the teen is a foreign national, the charges against him were covered in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries as well.
Commenters online have, by and large, shown little pity on the French teen, seeming to believe that he needs to be taught a lesson.
“Parents gotta teach their kids, or strangers will,” a Facebook user remarked.
“Totally deserves it,” wrote another.
“The kind of biohazard it poses if the perpetrator is carrying a disease. This is not a laughing matter,” an IG user commented.
“Public hygiene concern. Ppl need to stop doing things for ‘likes’ on social media. Very careless behaviour. Good on Singapore for teaching a lesson. Nobody should be behaving like that,” another chimed in.
Others commented along the lines of FAFO, which stands for fool around and find out and is slang for how reckless behaviour can lead to swift, severe consequences.
“Good!! All these kids need to start realizing that actions have consequences,” a commenter wrote.
“Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes,” another added. /TISG
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