S'pore mum allegedly finds man with pants down in Orchard Central nursing room, calls police

A young mother was about to enter a nursing room at Orchard Central to attend to her crying 3.5-month-old infant.

Instead, she allegedly found a half-naked man in the stall, with his genitals fully exposed.

She quickly left the scene in shock and filed a police report.

Incident

The mother, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told Mothership that the incident occurred on Sep. 21, just after noon, on the fourth floor toilet of Orchard Central.

She brought her crying baby to the nursing room, but found that it was occupied, with the stall's digital lock indicating "locked".

As the mother waited outside the stall for a few minutes, she found that there was no sound coming from within the room, until the indication suddenly changed to "unlocked".

She pressed on the electronic "unlock" button to open the nursing room's door, but allegedly found a man with his pants down.

According to the mother, the man strangely did not appear surprised.

The man quickly turned his body away from the mother and baby, but "was not the least apologetic", she said.

He appeared to be alone in the room, but it remained unclear why he was there.

Despite the initial shock, the woman quickly headed back into the public corridor of the mall with her baby, where she eventually decided against nursing her baby and called her husband instead.

She also noted that the man was not seen leaving the area during this period, leading her to assume he was still in the nursing room.

Police report made

It later dawned on the first-time mother that the man was likely abusing the nursing room.

The same afternoon, she filed a complaint to the mall's management team.

According to screenshots seen by Mothership, the mall said it will implement measures to try prevent such incidents from happening again.

Responding to Mothership's queries, the mall confirmed that they were notified about the incident via an app feedback feature.

"The safety, comfort, and well-being of our shoppers is our top priority," the management said.

They added that extra precautions will be taken moving forward.

"To prevent any misuse, the mall will add signages to remind patrons that these facilities are strictly reserved for their intended purpose."

The mother has also lodged a police report.

The police confirmed that they received a report on the incident.

"Disturbing"

The mother told Mothership that she "did not expect this at all", but realised after consulting fellow mothers that unpleasant experiences in public nursing rooms were not uncommon.

"I will only feel safe nursing my baby in public nursing rooms with security access or in public, with a nursing cover," she said.

"With people abusing the nursing rooms, how sure can I be that the nursing room is secure or clean enough for a nursing mom with a baby? It is quite disturbing."

Nursing room misuse

When Mothership reached out to other nursing mothers, some shared their experiences witnessing similar misuse of public nursing rooms, with many attributing it to a lack of security access on nursing room doors.

Hot water dispensers

A few pointed out that as hot water dispensers are often located in nursing rooms, it is not uncommon to find members of the public entering the room to refill bottles, even while a nursing mother is in it.

"A lady, not a mum with baby, was eating her lunch and getting hot water for her soup... My baby just had a full blowout, and it felt a bit awkward and weird to change his nappy while she was there," one mother said.

Other uses

Some mothers also complained about the use of nursing rooms for unrelated activities like taking naps and using them as a changing room.

"[I was] uncomfortable a few times because I found men napping in the nursing room... Some will rattle the door but they [are] not there to nurse," one mother pointed out.

"I've had a member of staff at an airport knock on the door for me to get out. I thought it was another parent and child so I rushed only to find out they wanted to change their clothes," another said.

In another mall where the nursing room was located within a handicap toilet stall, one mother said, "In the time that I changed [baby's] diaper – probably less than five minutes – I had two uncles and one auntie opening the door, because the lock was faulty. One uncle [had already] started unzipping himself."

Top image via Far East Malls and Canva