An elderly man was reported to have passed away in his home alone on Aug. 4, according to Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao.
In response to queries from Mothership, the police confirmed that they had received a call for assistance at Blk 20 Telok Blangah Crescent on Aug. 4, at 11:22am.
A 68-year-old man was found lying motionless inside a unit at the said location, and was pronounced dead at scene by a paramedic. The police added that it was subsequently established that the man had died of natural causes.
Threw paper balls at neighbour's unit
One neighbour, surnamed Xu, 29, later told reporters from Lianhe Wanbao that prior to his death, the elderly man had often crumpled flyers stuffed at his door into paper balls, then tossed them at her doorway.
Xu added that while they thought the behaviour was odd, they had never made a fuss about the matter.
She and another resident, Wang, 40, would simply pick up the paper balls and throw them away instead, as they saw that he was an elderly man.
Cessation of paper balls
Then, on Aug. 2, Wang caught a whiff of a foul smell while picking up an item from the corridor.
Wang told Wanbao reporters that she had initially assumed it was nothing, presuming that the smell originated from a dead animal nearby.
However, the smell only got stronger the next morning.
At this point, Xu said that she had realised something might be amiss, as it seemed like the stench was emanating from the elderly man's unit.
Both Xu and Wang also realised that it had been several days since the elderly man had last tossed a paper ball at their unit, and recent flyers remained untouched at the man's door.
Discovery
Wanbao reported that town council staff had subsequently been sent down to investigate, but that the staff initially thought the stench originated from rotten food.
It was only after the third day, when the smell became unbearable and the neighbours decided to call the police, that the body was discovered.
According to Wanbao, the police had realised something was amiss upon arriving on the scene, and subsequently broke into the house.
The man's body was allegedly in a state of decomposition upon discovery.
Xu later shared with Wanbao that she had barely interacted with the elderly man, save for the paper balls that would often appear outside her unit.
Speculating about his paper ball tossing behaviour, Xu said: "Maybe he was worried that no one would know if anything happened to him, so he decided to throw paper balls at our doors frequently. This way, if he stopped the throwing on any given day, we would find it odd, and notice something was amiss."
Top image via Google Maps