SINGAPORE - They acted on their instincts and prevented more women from potentially becoming victims of upskirt photos.
For their vigilance, Mr Yusman Yusoff, 41, and Mr Yap Zuo Peng, 27, were given the Public Spiritedness Award by the Singapore Police Force at an award ceremony on Wednesday (Oct 17).
The Singaporeans had helped the police detain two men suspected of taking upskirt photos of women in separate cases.
Earlier this month, on Oct 3, Mr Yap, who sells mobile accessories, was walking up an escalator at Hougang MRT station at around 9pm, when he noticed a man holding a mobile phone underneath the skirt of a woman standing in front of him.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the man's hand to stop him.
"I asked him what he was doing and he denied doing anything," recalled Mr Yap, who then took the man's phone away and shouted to the woman.
It took a while for Mr Yap to get her attention as she was plugged into her earphones and did not notice the commotion.
After he explained what he had witnessed, the woman checked the man's phone and discovered four upskirt photos. "I asked her if she was okay, and she said it was very creepy knowing that someone had taken those photos of her," Mr Yap added.
The man, 21, was later arrested by the police.
In a separate incident, Mr Yusman was having a drink after work at the linkway between Toa Payoh MRT station and the bus interchange when he saw a man tailing a woman at around 7.20pm on Sept 19.
Sensing something fishy, Mr Yusman, a courier, noticed that the man was holding a mobile phone in a tilted position under the woman's skirt.
He followed the man from afar, but eventually lost sight of him. Mr Yusman then notified police officers from the Public Transport Security Command.
With Mr Yusman's help, the officers later identified the suspect, 23, and arrested him.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Koh Wei Keong, who is Commander of Public Transport Security Command, praised Mr Yusman and Mr Yap for their display of public spiritedness at the award ceremony at the Public Transport Security Command in Paya Lebar on Wednesday.
He said their willingness to step forward to assist the victims, which led to the arrest of the suspects, was commendable.
"Such acts go a long way to help deter crime on the public transport network," he said.
