Driver calls police after outdoor saleswoman calls him a 'p*ssy' at Serangoon car park

A 51-year-old driver arrived at the public car park near the NEX mall in Serangoon with plans to go shopping at around 4:35pm on Oct. 21.

Instead, he claimed he was harassed by a roaming outdoor saleswoman promoting car care products and services before he could even step out of his vehicle.

A video of the incident was shared online, where the woman even audibly insulted him on camera at one point by calling him a "p*ssy".

In response, the 22-year-old saleswoman claimed that she saw the driver waving at her, but was unable to hear what he was saying, which was why she felt upset and violated when she saw she was being filmed.

What happened

The driver, Toh, told Mothership that he was first approached by a male Purewax car care products salesperson when he first pulled into the parking lot.

The salesperson left after Toh said he was not interested.

But that was apparently not it.

A saleswoman from the same company then approached Toh soon after, while he was still in his car.

"I gestured to shoo her away, but she just pretended not to see me," Toh claimed.

"I got really irritated," he recalled, adding that he could not even drive out of the parking lot for fear of injuring the woman since she stood so close to his car.

Toh then started recording her actions with his mobile phone.

He claimed she got aggressive when she realised she was being recorded.

Up until that point, he still had the aircon in his car turned on, he said, and was reading the news before alighting.

The driver reiterated that he did not do anything to provoke the woman.

The video

In the video shot by Toh, the saleswoman could be seen pressing her face close to the window of the car, squinting her eyes as she was looking into the interior of the vehicle.

"Hello," she said, smiling and waving at Toh.

"What do you want? I'm not interested!" Toh could be heard saying in the video.

"Huh? I can't hear you," the woman replied.

She then walked off to look at Toh through the windshield of the car before coming back to the driver's door.

A few seconds later, the woman held her phone to film the driver.

Verbal altercation

The woman then removed the phone from her face and retorted, "How about you stop being a p*ssy and open the door?"

"Can you say that again?" Toh angrily replied.

He added: "Say that again! Where are you from?"

The woman then said something else but it could not be made out, to which Toh replied, "No! I said, 'No!'"

"Go away!", Toh repeated, before the video ended.

Toh called the police

"I was totally shocked," Toh said when he recalled hearing the slur the woman dropped.

Calling it the "last straw", Toh called the police soon after.

Five minutes later, the police arrived and spoke to both parties separately.

Toh claimed he could hear the woman use vulgarities on him when talking to the police, where she expressed anger at Toh for taking a video of her.

Toh left the scene while the police were still speaking to the woman.

This was after he was permitted by officers to do so, he said.

A case card was also issued to Toh by the officers indicating there was "intentional harassment" by the woman.

Toh said he frequently visited the NEX shopping mall as he lived nearby and that he had never encountered such "disrespectful" and "thuggish" behaviour from a salesperson.

Saleswoman's account of what happened

The saleswoman, who wished to be anonymous, said she saw the driver waving at her.

She told Mothership her side of the story, which she also shared with social media channel SgfollowsAll.

"Obviously I went because I thought he wanted to get the products from me," she claimed.

She also admitted that she could not really see the man through the car's window and windshield because of the reflection from the sun.

When she peered into the car via the window, she noticed that Toh had already begun recording her.

"I felt very violated," she said.

"Like why are you recording me in the first place? I was just doing my job."

She also claimed she began taking her own video of what was happening to "protect" herself.

In a video shot by the saleswoman, which was reviewed by Mothership, Toh was seen holding his phone near the car window as he recorded the woman.

The saleswoman then moved to the windshield of the car, where Toh stuck two of his fingers out, and then made the "Ok" hand sign.

"How about you stop being a p*ssy and open the door?" the woman said, to which Toh can be heard retorting, "Say that again?"

The woman told Toh in the video, "You were the one waving at me actually."

Toh then replied but it was inaudible.

"What? I can't hear you," the woman replied.

She then continued, "You were the one waving at me there, so I came here and I waved at you. Now you're asking me to move like I'm your dog. Why not you open the door?"

Toh then proceeded to text on his phone, while the woman said, "Hi, I can't hear you."

He then showed the woman that he was calling the police.

"Oh, I'm so scared," the woman said mockingly in response.

"You waved at me first and now you're threatening me? Seriously? Get a life, sir."

The woman told Mothership that after seeing Toh's video, she said she was glad that she recorded a video as well, as she knew she "wasn't in the wrong".

When asked why she used an expletive, the woman said, "I wanted him to get out of the car, because I can't hear what he's saying. I can hear him mouthing some words, but I can't hear him at all."

The woman said she would often approach car owners as part of her job and there had never been such an encounter before.

The saleswoman's manager told Mothership separately that the company is a reseller of Purewax car care products.

He said the driver could have submitted his feedback to the company instead of taking a video.

Top photos courtesy of Toh and saleswoman