Thanks to the ubiquitous presence of social media vigilantes, a woman in Singapore stands accused of hogging a priority seat on a crowded bus, even going so far as to snap at the elderly passenger who requested the seat for her husband to occupy.

The incident was witnessed by another commuter, who felt strongly enough about it despite "not wanting to shame any stranger", and took photos of the alleged seat-hogger and related what happened in a Facebook post on Wednesday, May 16.

Bag kicking

The vigilante, going on Facebook by the name Lui Ferrer, wrote that she was standing near an occupied priority seat at the front of bus service 985, which runs from Choa Chu Kang to Geylang.

According to her, whenever her bag accidentally touched the knee of the passenger sitting there, the woman (whom we shall refer to as "Priority Seat Woman" (PSW)) allegedly kicked it away.

So the Ferrer kept her distance — until an elderly Malay couple boarded.

Allegedly snapped and put earpiece on

Ferrer observed that the wife had politely asked PSW to give up the seat she was occupying to her husband, as he had just recovered from a stroke.

However, instead of obliging, PSW allegedly snapped, "What????!!" with what Ferrer described as an angry and irritated look.

Although shocked, the wife explained that the mosque was still a distance away, which was why she was hoping her husband could have the seat.

Unfortunately, according to Ferrer, PSW put her earpiece on and played with her phone in response.

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"Can you please let the old uncle sit?"

That was when Ferrer decided to intervene. She says she asked PSW loudly, "Can you please let the old uncle sit?"

Yet the woman allegedly feigned deafness and ignored her request.

The elderly wife shook her head in disbelief and started talking to Ferrer instead.

She told Ferrer that since the Ramadan fasting month was starting the next day, they wanted to go to the mosque.

While her husband had a car, they decided not to drive there since he had only recently recovered from stroke.

None of their children were free to drive them too, which was why they took a bus instead.

Ferrer wrote that the bus ride lasted 15 minutes, and expressed sympathies for their predicament.

While we're not sure why the couple did not try looking for a seat elsewhere, it's possible that the rest of the nearby seats were occupied by other passengers in need, and it was too crowded to move to the rear.

Here are more instances of people not giving up their seats on the public transport (which is one of the hottest topics in Singapore, by the way):

You can read Ferrer's original post here:

Update on May 21, 11.46am: The seat-hogger has since apologised in the comments section of the article:

Top image from Lui Ferrer's Facebook post