A 34-year-old Singaporean man, who sexually abused six boys as a youth between 2010 and 2014, was sentenced on Oct. 28 to a jail term of 19 years, one month, two weeks and 14 days.

His offences had gone undetected and only came to light in 2019 when he emailed police stating that he had committed crimes in the past, which he believed remained unsolved.

Charges

Court documents seen by Mothership stated that Chen Caijin will also receive the maximum 24 strokes of the cane.

He pleaded guilty to six charges, which include molestation, sexual penetration of a minor, voluntarily causing hurt, taking nude photos of a child, as well as relinquishing a bank account.

Another 16 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

A gag order was imposed to protect the victims' identities.

Offences

In 2010, Chen, who was 17 to 18 years old then, abused his first victim, who was 14 to 15 years old at the time.

He would pay for the victim when they gamed at LAN shops.

Court documents stated that the victim would push Chen away when he hugged the victim and tried to kiss him.

Chen also molested the victim.

On one occasion, Chen pulled down the victim's pants and sexually assaulted him when the victim fell asleep at the void deck.

Other friends who were present laughed, and the victim did not dare to confront Chen despite being confused as Chen had been paying for his games.

Chen also molested the victim while they rode an e-scooter together, and later sexually assaulted the victim, who was asleep.

After performing sex acts on another victim, Chen shared nude pictures he took of the victim with three mutual friends without the victim's consent.

In addition, at least one victim allowed Chen to continue with his sexual abuse as he was worried that Chen would no longer pay for his meals and gaming.

Emailed police

According to court documents, Chen's offences came to light in 2019 when he sent an email to the police on Nov. 1, 2019.

He stated that he had committed serious crimes in the past but had not been caught, and wanted to "ask some question[s]" before deciding whether to admit to those crimes.

Chen added that he wanted to "negotiate a certain type of punishment (not liniency [sic])" if he confessed, but did not provide other details of what these crimes were.

A few days later on Nov. 4, 2019, Chen sent another email to the police from a different email address.

In reiterating that he had committed some crimes in the past which he believed remained unsolved, Chen stated that he "deserve[d] to be punished".

He also posed various questions to the police, which included how he could be sentenced to the maximum number of strokes of the cane.

Told police

The police then invited him to provide a statement in person.

On Nov. 8, 2019, Chen provided a statement to the police, where he admitted to having previously molested several individuals and having sex with underage victims.

However, as he did not want to be arrested or detained, he refused to reveal the victims' identities or the details of the offences he had committed.

The police were only able to begin identifying suspected victims of Chen's sexual crimes after seizing his phone, obtaining a forensic extraction of its contents and reviewing Chen's messages with his contacts.

Through extensive investigations, the police discovered that Chen had engaged in at least 22 sexual offences between 2010 and 2014.

According to court documents, Chen was largely cooperative throughout investigations and willingly disclosed information related to his sexual crimes to the police.

He was arrested on Apr. 15, 2024, and has been in remand to date.

Examined by psychiatrist

Upon examining Chen, an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) psychiatrist said he had personality disorder with prominent masochistic and antisocial traits.

Chen was also found to have paraphilic disorder, with an extensive history of childhood sexual trauma.

Though the psychiatrist said Chen's main sexual interest was in teenage boys aged 11 to 16, he also had strong paedophilic tendencies as he displayed sexual interest in males under 13 years of age.

The psychiatrist was also of the opinion that Chen would have been aware of the nature and wrongness of his actions at the time of the offences, and that there was no direct contributory link from any of his psychiatric conditions.

This is because neither his judgment nor self-control would have been impaired.

Prosecution submissions

The prosecution sought a sentence of 18 to 20 years and four months' jail, plus 14 days' jail for breach of remission order and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane.

According to court documents, the prosecution accepted that some mitigating weight should be given to Chen's youth and admissions to the police, as well as his subsequent cooperation during investigations.

They said it was Chen's initial act of coming forward that resulted in criminal investigations, without which the offences may never have come to light.

The prosecution noted, however, that Chen's cooperativeness was conditional and limited.

This is because he initially wanted to "ask some question[s]" before deciding whether to admit to his crimes and claimed that he wanted to "negotiate a certain type of punishment" if he confessed.

Chen also refused to reveal the identities of his victims or details of his crimes as he did not want to be arrested or detained.

As such, Chen's acceptance of responsibility for his actions went only so far as his ability to dictate the terms of his punishment, the prosecution said.

They added that while some credit should be given for coming forward to the police, he should not be placed on the same footing as an offender who offered a full confession or voluntarily surrendered to custody.

"His conduct was both harmful and deplorable and the sentence imposed should send a clear signal that preying on the young will not be tolerated."

Defence

CNA reported that the defence argued that Chen did not present as a "typical sexual offender".

Noting that Chen committed the offences when he was 17 to 20 years old, they said that he was sincerely remorseful.

He had demonstrated this through a voluntary confession, and proactively sought treatment at IMH.

The defence said Chen was prescribed injections to lower his testosterone levels and manage his sexual urges, which doctors described as "a form of chemical castration".

Chen also asked for the dosage to be increased to manage his urges, according to CNA.

The defence added that Chen wished to see his 71-year-old mother, who has stomach cancer, again before she dies.

'Disturbing' pattern of conduct: Judge

Calling it a "disturbing" pattern of conduct, CNA reported Justice Mavis Chionh as saying that Chen made friends with a victim and initiated physical contact afterwards, which escalated into sexual acts.

As such, she said it would not be accurate for his offences to be attributed solely to a lack of self-restraint, or his youth or youthful folly.

However, she accepted that Chen had displayed genuine remorse as he voluntarily underwent chemical castration.

For sexual penetration of a minor, Chen could have been given up to 20 years' jail and fined or caned.

A delivery rider, 51, who is permanently blind in his right eye and suffers from a serious heart condition has failed in his bid to obtain S$500 in monthly maintenance from his ex-wife.

The Family Justice Courts dismissed his application after finding that he had not proven that his medical conditions prevented him from earning a livelihood entirely, or that he was unable to maintain himself.

According to a judgement dated Oct. 23, District Judge Kow Keng Siong acknowledged the man's serious medical conditions but found that he did not qualify as an incapacitated former husband under the Women's Charter.

The man, identified as YKM in court documents, had been married to his former wife, YKN, for 28 years before their divorce was finalised on Jan. 1, 2026.

Permanently blind in right eye, suffers from heart condition

Following the divorce, the man sought S$500 in monthly maintenance from his former wife, citing his serious medical conditions.

He was certified permanently blind in his right eye in February 2025.

According to court documents, the man said his impaired vision made it difficult for him to see kerbs and obstacles in poor lighting, preventing him from working evening and night shifts.

He also suffered a heart attack in June 2025 and was hospitalised for six days.

In February 2026, medical examinations found that his heart function was severely impaired. The following month, doctors advised him to avoid strenuous activities and driving taxis.

The man expressed concerns that continuing to work as a delivery rider could put his health at risk due to his impaired vision and heart condition.

However, his former wife opposed the application, arguing that he had not shown that his medical conditions prevented him from earning a livelihood or supporting himself.

Earns around S$2,725 monthly as delivery rider

The court noted that despite his medical conditions, the man continued to work as a delivery rider, earning a net monthly income of approximately S$2,725.

This exceeded the S$2,190 he said he needed for basic living expenses, including food, transport, utilities, telephone and internet bills, and rent.

Kow acknowledged that the man's health conditions restricted the types of work he could safely undertake.

However, he said the medical evidence did not establish that the man was incapable of earning a livelihood.

"The law cannot turn an apprehension into an incapacity," the judge said.

Medical concerns

The court noted the question was not whether the man indeed has a disability or illness, but whether that prevented him from earning a livelihood. "Clear and objective medical evidence is needed", it stated.

The court also noted that the man's medical reports advised him to avoid strenuous activities and driving taxis, but did not establish that he was permanently unfit for work.

The court further noted that while the man's concerns about future hardship are understandable, they cannot be a basis for ordering the woman to pay maintenance today.

"The definition of “incapacitated former husband” in s 2 requires the Husband to show, among others, that (a) he is presently incapacitated from earning a livelihood and (b) he is presently unable to maintain himself.

These requirements are not met merely because he may, at some future date, become incapacitated and unable to support himself."

Claimed S$500 monthly for necessities and cigarettes

The man claimed monthly expenses of around S$3,819 against a total monthly income of approximately S$3,245, including S$520 in rental income, leaving a shortfall of S$574.

However, the court found that the man had failed to adequately explain or justify some of his claimed expenses.

These included S$500 a month for amenities, necessities and cigarettes, although he had already listed separate expenses for food, transport, utilities, telephone and internet bills, debt repayments and rent.

Kow also found it unreasonable to require his former wife to pay for cigarettes, which he described as a matter of personal choice.

The court also questioned a claimed S$100 monthly maintenance expense, as the man had not explained whom the payment was intended for.

Kow noted that the couple's four children were working adults and found that his former wife should not be required to fund payments to them if the money was intended for their benefit.

Ex-wife's maintenance application also dismissed

The former wife had separately sought nominal maintenance of S$1 per month, citing a pre-existing lumbar slipped-disc condition.

However, the court also dismissed her application.

She earned approximately S$7,903.55 a month, around 2.6 times her former husband's gross monthly earnings of S$2,986.33.

Kow found that the medical evidence did not sufficiently establish the severity of her slipped-disc condition or how it might affect her ability to work in the future.

The court also considered their respective financial circumstances, noting that the man earned significantly less than his former wife and suffered from serious health conditions.

Ex-wife awarded 75 per cent of matrimonial assets

The court ordered that the couple's matrimonial assets, valued at S$568,985.22, be divided 25:75 in favour of the former wife.

The woman was allocated approximately S$426,738, while the man was allocated approximately S$142,246.

In reaching the decision, Kow found that the former wife had contributed more to household expenses and taken on greater childcare responsibilities throughout their 28-year marriage, including returning to work as a flight stewardess after the man's business folded, he became a bankrupt and worked as a driver.

The judge also acknowledged the man's contributions, including being the family's sole breadwinner during the early years of their marriage and helping to care for their children.

A construction company in Singapore and its general manager have been charged for allegedly operating an unlicensed foreign worker dormitory.

According to a media release by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), LBD Engineering Pte Ltd and general manager Alvin Lim Yee Hong, 35, were charged in court under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act 2015 (FEDA).

MOM inspected LBD's factory premises at 58A Sungei Kadut Loop, and found about 300 bed spaces there.

An investigation revealed that LBD had converted parts of the premises into a dormitory, housing 173 migrant workers from four different companies.

Lim was allegedly aware that the company did not hold a valid FEDA licence, but allowed the operation of the dormitory regardless.

Penalties

Under the FEDA, the offence of operating a foreign employee dormitory without a valid licence carries a fine of up to $500,000, imprisonment of up to two years or both.

MOM stated that it takes "a serious view of the operation of unlicensed foreign employee dormitories."

The ministry also reiterated that licensing requirements are necessary to ensure that dormitories provide safe and proper living conditions for migrant workers. Operating a dormitory without a valid license circumvents these safeguards and may put the well-being of workers at risk.

It will not hesitate to take firm enforcement action against those who operate foreign employee accommodation without a valid FEDA licence.

Employers are also responsible for ensuring that their migrant workers' accommodation complies with regulations, it said.

Members of the public who are aware of suspected unlicensed foreign employee dormitories or other infringements involving migrant worker accommodation should report the matter to MOM through its “Report an Infringement” eService.

All information provided will be kept strictly confidential.

A high-speed train collision in Toledo, Spain, killed at least 68 people and injured more than 100 people.

The incident occurred on Oct. 28 just before 9am local time, AFP and Reuters reported.

In a video released by the Spanish Civil Guard, derailed carriages were seen laying on their sides, with debris strewn across the incident site.

‼️Accidente tren

🚨 La Guardia Civil ha desplegado en la zona personal de Seguridad Ciudadana de la provincia de Toledo, OMAC (Oficinas Móviles de Atención a la Ciudadanía) así como agentes del SEPRONA y de la Jefatura de Tráfico.

✔️ También se desplazan a la zona en este momento unidades de Seguridad Ciudadana de Ciudad Real y Albacete, de los Grupos de Reserva y Seguridad (GRS), del Servicio Aéreo, de drones, grupo de Caballería y el Equipo de Grandes Catástrofes del Servicio de Criminalística, del Servicio Cinológico y de Policía Judicial.

— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) October 28, 2026

Casualties

According to local authorities, an Iryo express train and a Renfe high-speed train were involved in the collision.

The Iryo train had 147 passengers, including a baby on board, while the Renfe train carried 497 passengers at the time of the incident.

One passenger, Rafael Barcelo, claimed he was drinking coffee when they “felt ⁠a very strong impact and we were sent flying”.

The passengers, who were seen splattered with blood or bandaged, were evacuated from the incident site after the collision.

Among the injured, 58 of them had been conveyed to the hospital, while 15 of them are reportedly in critical condition.

Computer communications failure

Óscar Puente, Spain’s transport minister, said the Renfe service train was authorised to restart its journey, despite an active red signal as a train ahead was stationary.

Traffic should have automatically stopped.

However, an “erroneous” decision was made to allow the train to proceed.

This could have been due to a computer communications failure.

"The decision to resume traffic, while that system had not been restored, belongs to the control centre," Puente said.

"In circumstances that, from our point of view, are inexplicable,” he added.

According to Puente, the Renfe train travelled about 25km before colliding with the stationary train at a speed that could have reached "up to 200km per hour”.

Suspension

In a press release on Oct. 28, Renfe confirmed the incident and activated assistance for those affected.

The railway operator also said it had suspended the main high-speed line from Madrid to southern Spain.

Investigations are ongoing.

Deadliest

This incident is the deadliest train collision in Spain since 2013.

It is also the second fatal high-speed train collision on the same line in 2026, following a previous high-speed train crash in January 2026 that killed 46 people.

Australian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk faced backlash after she soiled herself during a race in Beijing on Sep. 12.

In a video posted on her Instagram account on Oct. 28, the athlete offered another apology and announced her comeback.

She is competing in the Hyrox Elite 15 race in Hamburg, Germany, on Oct. 30.

This marks her first race since the incident.

Apology

Wietrzyk said that she has spent the last eight weeks reflecting on what happened in Beijing.

“I’m truly, truly so sorry to everyone I affected,” she said.

She apologised for her decision to continue competing despite soiling herself, and said that she had learnt a lot from the experience.

The athlete expressed her gratitude for those who supported her through the controversy.

She said it had been a “very confronting” situation, which was difficult to navigate both personally and publicly.

Despite the backlash, she said she is excited to return to competitions.

"I'm super excited to go back doing what I love," she said.

Withdrew from previous race

On Sep. 12, Wietrzyk soiled herself during a Hyrox race in Beijing but continued the race, using communal equipment.

She finished first in the women's Pro event.

Videos of the incident went viral online, drawing criticism over hygiene and safety risks to other competitors.

Wietrzyk posted her first public apology on Sep. 17, agreeing that she should have stopped racing.

"Looking back, I regret the decision to not have stepped off the track," she said.

She subsequently withdrew from the race, forfeiting the points she had earned.

Hyrox organisers also apologised for not intervening and updated their rules, allowing race directors to withdraw participants should bodily fluids pose a contamination or welfare risk.

Related stories

A routine shower turned into a nightmare for a 19-year-old woman in Singapore when she caught a phone recording her through the bathroom window.

The woman screamed, and the suspect immediately fled.

Police investigations later revealed that a 20-year-old man had previously filmed both her and her mother on multiple occasions.

The victims are the 19-year-old woman and her 55-year-old mother.

The court issued a gag order to protect the victims' identities.

The man pleaded guilty on Oct. 27 to two counts of voyeurism, reported Shin Min Daily News.

One other charge for voyeurism will be taken into consideration during sentencing.

His sentencing has been adjourned to Dec. 17.

Peered into flat from fitness corner

On Apr. 8, 2026, the man had gone to a fitness corner in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate at around 9:20pm.

As he walked past the victim's flat, he climbed onto a ledge to peer into the room, Shin Min reported.

As the curtains were drawn, he was not able to see anyone inside and returned to the fitness corner.

About 30 minutes later, he heard the sound of someone showering coming from the unit.

He walked over to the exterior of the bathroom and slid his phone through the bathroom window to secretly record the woman showering.

He fled after hearing the woman scream.

Recorded both mother and daughter previously

The victim's mother subsequently called the police.

Authorities later established the man's identity and found more illicit recordings on his phone, including one taken on Mar. 22 of the mother in the bathroom.

Between Mar. 30 and Apr. 8, he also recorded 10 videos of the young woman showering, changing, or using the toilet.

The court reportedly heard that the young woman felt distressed, vulnerable, and unsafe in her own home following the incident.

The family now ensure that their bathroom window is shut before taking a shower.

Abdul El-Sayed is a very qualified individual.

The 41-year-old, who is running to become a U.S. senator to represent the state of Michigan in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, is a trained medical doctor, but also has a PhD from Oxford.

He also has a history of public service, having served as a health director for the city of Detroit when he was only 30.

If elected, he would be one of the youngest members of a Senate where the majority are over the age of 65.

He would also be the first Muslim senator in U.S. history, and is one of only two to have attempted to win the role.

Naming distractions

Ever since he won the Democratic nomination for senator for Michigan in August, he has faced discrimination that specifically targets his religion through ads, U.S. President Donald Trump mocking him from the rally stages, and being confronted at events for things that happened before he was born.

So whether he wanted it to be or not, El-Sayed’s religion has been put front and center, and his contest against Republican Mike Rogers has become as much about how he deals with it as it has been about his policy positions.

Over the past month, he has faced two distinct strands of attack regarding his religion: one from President Trump and another regarding purported links to an Egyptian fundamentalist religious group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Trump has insulted El-Sayed on multiple occasions throughout October, including in a Truth Social post where he misnames him as Mohamed El-Sayed, only to "correct'"himself at a later rally by mocking his name again from the rally podium.

El-Sayed bit back, issuing a statement saying “He (Trump) knows my name is Abdul,” but that Trump was pretending to forget in order to distract voters from Trump’s own bad policies that had led to increased energy prices, grocery prices, and medical costs.

Muslim Brotherhood

He has also faced accusations of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The claims centre on social media posts from 2012 and 2013 by his half-sister, who wrote that their mother was active in the Brotherhood in the early 1970s, before El-Sayed was born.

Reports say there is no evidence he was personally involved. He has denied any ties, and said he wasn’t raised by his mother.

El-Sayed was also the target of a Republican audience member who challenged him to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood at a town hall. The exchange quickly went viral, with El-Sayed praised for the nature of his takedown.

CNN quotes him as telling the man that “You assume… that because I am Muslim, that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution.”

In his rebuttal, he referenced the reply of John F. Kennedy, who, as a Catholic, was accused of having a dual loyalty to the Vatican.

Kennedy had said at the time that he was not running to be a Catholic president; he was running for president and happened to be Catholic.

El-Sayed said that he was not running to be “a Muslim senator; I am running for Senate and happen to be Muslim.”

Polling...

But whether he wants religion to be front and centre for his campaign, it is.

As election day looms and early voting in much of the U.S. has started, he continues to be a target for Republican figures like Trump.

El-Sayed, as of Oct. 28, is leading his race by 3.3 percentage points at 48.8 per cent according to the Silver Bulletin, just outside the margin of error, although it should be noted that Michigan voted for Trump over Kamala Harris in 2024.

This is in an environment where a generic Democrat is more popular than their Republican counterpart by 9.2 percentage points, implying that El-Sayed is lagging in popularity.

... and policy positions

He has, on numerous occasions, said that he should be judged on his actions rather than his religion.

His main campaign policy is a call for universal healthcare, or “Medicare-for-all”, complaining about the dismal state of public healthcare in the U.S.

He is labelled a progressive and is often accused of being a socialist, but the latter is a label he rejects.

El-Sayed has been endorsed by several figures on the Democratic Party’s left, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but he has called himself a “capitalist”, although he has said that the U.S. is not a capitalist economy, but a "corporatist" one.

In his view, corporatism has eliminated competition in the U.S., locking in consumers to a mere handful of different options, essentially forming an oligopoly.

He has also called for a wealth tax, saying that he’d rather have an economy of “1,000 millionaires than one billionaire.”

He is also, like many progressive Democrats, critical of U.S. support for Israel, although he said he would support any outcome that "a free Palestinian people and a free Jewish Israeli people decide is the right outcome."

Religious attacks

These are positions that would single him out for attack as a socialist by Republicans, and indeed many others with similar positions have been.

But for El-Sayed, the dominating narratives are about his religion, and to a lesser extent, his ethnic background.

His response has been consistent throughout, saying that attacks on his faith are distractions from economic policy failure.

Trump, in recent days, has renewed his verbal assaults, calling him a jihadist who would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go in the Senate, as quoted by the BBC.

On Oct. 24, Hong Kong star Julian Cheung broke down in tears on stage while performing in Foshan over the passing of a close friend.

Cheung said that he wanted to dedicate the song “Ten years of life” to a good friend.

Choking up, Cheung said “Because he just left me. My good friend Lawrence, we were brothers who played mahjong for decades, and now I’ll be missing one player for mahjong”.

Anita Yuen was in the crowd, and seeing her husband on stage, she shed tears in the audience as well, Lianhe Zaobao reported.

Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Sham Kar-wai (Chingmy Yau’s husband) and Lawrence, a lawyer, have known each other since they were young.

They have remained close for years.

Yuen had once jokingly described the four as "four good-for-nothings".

"They are really useless! Of course, they are successful in their careers, but they are useless when they play."

She revealed that they often met up to play mahjong.

Yuen had also joked a few years ago that she was jealous of her husband and his friends, and that their frequent meet-ups made her feel like a “third party”.

The owner of a coconut shake shop at Serangoon paid more than S$6,000 in an effort to boost their reach.

However, he claimed that it amounted to "almost zero response".

In an interview with Instagram page @bestfoodsg, the owner of Coco Fwens shared both the struggles of running his own business, as well as what made him decide to open one.

He even revealed that he has not drawn a salary after seven months of business.

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Initial hopes

Coco Fwens, run by a husband-and-wife duo, is located opposite Serangoon CC.

The owner, Pradeep Pannirselvam, shared that when he and his wife brought their dog to be groomed one day, they noticed an empty retail space next to the pet groomer.

After doing some research, they concluded that there were "not too many coconut shake shops" in Singapore despite being a very popular item.

They therefore decided to "give it a shot".

However, they soon discovered the difficulty of F&B in Singapore.

When business was slow, he said, they would sell only four cups a day.

S$6000 spent

He thus engaged food bloggers to promote his shop on their platforms.

Despite paying them more than S$3,000, Coco Fwens gained "almost zero response" from their marketing efforts.

Undeterred, he paid another S$3,000 to a food-promotion Telegram group for just a single post.

But that did not get him much business either, he said.

"Before signing up, they showed impressive results and promised good exposure. But after spending the money, the response was almost zero.

Honestly, it hurts. For a small business like ours, $6,000 is a lot of money. That money could have helped us survive a little longer."

From the experience, he learned that cheap rent "doesn't mean it's always going to be a very good location," he said.

He added that another lesson was that a good product was no guarantee that a business would have a steady flow of customers.

No blame

At the end of it all, however, Pradeep does not blame anyone for how business has been turning out.

"Running a business is all about trial and error. If you never try you'll never know," he remarked.

In fact, he stated, perseverance was the essence of running a business.

Even when they do not get any customers, he claimed, he does not take a day off, keeping the shop open.

"I just want to keep the business alive and survive," he said.

He remains hopeful as many of his customers "keep coming back" for his drinks.

"Full support of my wife"

Another source of support is his wife, who also helps out at the shop when she can.

Even though the business is "not where [they want it] to be" yet, his wife has "never complained" or thought of giving up.

This is despite him going seven months without drawing a salary.

Pradeep shared that he and his wife met in secondary school and reconnected after 20 years before getting married.

They both came from lower-income backgrounds, he shared, where money was not always a given.

He believes this contributes to their similar values.

His goal is to build a "better life and a better future for [his] family".

On Dec. 6, 2025, an elderly man approached the passenger service counter at Clementi Bus Interchange.

The man, 86, was visibly panicked. He'd left his wallet on the bus, containing more than S$3,000 in cash — his hard-earned savings — along with bank cards and identification documents.

"I knew he was very worried about it lah. So I thought, I must try my best to help him find his wallet," said Lim Poh Boon, who works as a senior assistant interchange supervisor for SBS Transit.

He traced the man's concession card records and worked with bus captains to search through the different buses until the wallet was found.

On Oct. 28, he was recognised with an Outstanding Award at the Transport Gold Awards for his dedication and service.

Piecing together the journey

Speaking to Mothership, the 54-year-old shared that he had once lost his own wallet on a bus, and knew just how worrying such an experience could be.

He was determined to do what he could to help the passenger recover his belongings.

But when he spoke to the old man, the passenger said he could not remember where he had alighted.

After checking his concession card records, Lim was able to narrow the search down to Service 165.

He then had to figure out exactly which bus the elderly man had boarded.

As the buses pulled into the interchange, Lim approached the bus captains and personally searched the vehicles, checking the seats and aisles for any sign of the missing wallet.

The first few searches turned up nothing.

But after going through a few more buses, their persistence paid off.

A bus captain spotted the wallet tucked beneath a rear seat. The cash, bank cards and identification documents were all intact.

A relieved commuter

When the wallet was returned, the elderly man was overjoyed.

"He was very happy, and kept saying thank you to me," Lim recalled. "Of course, I felt happy and relieved... I know he was very panicked during that moment."

He even offered to treat them to a meal as a gesture of appreciation. But Lim politely turned down the offer.

"I think don't need," he said. “I just did my part."

"I think everyone faces different challenges in their daily lives. A small act of kindness can make a big difference to someone."

From bus fan to bus captain

Helping commuters like the elderly man has been part of Lim's working life for more than a decade.

But even as a child, he "used to be a bus fan", Lim confessed.

"When I was young that time... I used to take a chair, then [sit on] the bed, then pretend I'm driving a bus," he shared.

"Then I'd take a cane, put beside the bed as a gear. And whenever I took the bus I would sit on top, in the first seat. Just pretend I'm a bus driver."

Years later, that childhood fascination would become his profession.

In 2010, Lim — who worked as a florist at the time — decided to make the switch to getting behind the wheel of a bus.

He spent four years as a bus captain before moving into an interchange supervisory role in 2014.

While he misses driving, he said he prefers his current role, where he gets to interact with more people.

"[With] regular commuters, sometimes we make friends with them. Some travel [through here] for many years, from secondary school until university," he told Mothership.