Public Spiritedness Award for 11 who helped police

Mr Lawrence Ngu was picking out a durian at a shop in Bukit Merah when he saw people fleeing the area. He realised that just metres away from him, a chopper-wielding man was attacking another man.

Mr Ngu, 48, was one of about six people who helped to subdue the attacker on June 29 before the police arrived and arrested the suspect.

On Aug 16, the police presented Mr Ngu, a security guard, with the Public Spiritedness Award.

Recounting the incident, he said he rushed to subdue the man by himself.

"I tried using a chair to hold him down but he was too big. He tried to attack me with the chopper and I fell and rolled down a slope," said Mr Ngu, who suffered superficial injuries on his hand and legs.

He got up quickly and returned to suppress the man.

By this time, other passers-by were also trying to subdue the attacker. Together, they managed to pin him to the ground until the police arrived.

Mr Ngu said he had seen a video of a man allegedly attacking his wife with a chopper in Beach Road in April.

"I thought then that if something like this happened in front of me, I would have to help. Who would have expected that a similar incident would occur right in front of me?

"It happened very fast and I didn't have time to think. I just rushed over to help," he said.

The chopper-wielding man has been charged in court and the case is still ongoing.

Mr Bernard Chan and Mr Colin Chen were also among the 11 people - nine men and two women - who received the Public Spiritedness Award for helping the police in five cases.

The two men, both aged 44, foiled an attempt to ship about $29,000 worth of hard disks which were linked to a scam.

In 2020, Mr Chan, director of freight forwarding firm Penanshin Air Express, and Mr Chen, owner of logistics firm Zenex Technologies, received a request to ship eight cartons of hard disks to England.

The men received the hard disks in July last year.

Their suspicions were raised when they were told to replace the name of the exporters with their companies' names before sending the shipment.

The duo were told they were not permitted to open the cartons.

"I told Bernard that we would be held responsible if there was something explosive or dangerous inside them," said Mr Chen.

The goods allegedly belonged to a Singapore government agency, which set alarm bells ringing.

Mr Chen said: "Our companies are not big corporations, why would they go through us?"

The two men made a police report and investigations revealed that the goods were sent by Singapore-based companies which were victims of an e-mail impersonation scam.