Cleaners, wardens pick up after Hougang Pokemon crowd

SINGAPORE — The disamenities caused by Pokemon Go players surging to Block 401 Hougang Avenue 10 in recent weeks have led to stepped up cleaning of common areas there.

In addition, to deal with players who have been parking indiscriminately, parking wardens were also “hard at work over the weekend”, said Hougang Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The area has been one of the hotspots for Pokemon hunting since the game was launched in Singapore earlier this month. Littering and illegal or indiscriminate parking have been raised as concerns by residents, alongside other problems such as 
jaywalking.

Hougang NPC wrote that it had previously alerted both the Land Transport Authority and the Housing and Development Board regarding these concerns.

“To alleviate the problem of indiscriminate parking within the car park, HDB enforcement officers were hard at work over the weeked,” it said. “We urge all gamers who drive there to park their vehicles in the appropriate lots. Indiscriminate parking may pose issues or even dangers to other car park users.”

Hougang NPC also said the National Environment Agency and the town council have stepped up their cleaning of the area, but urged everyone to play their part in keeping the environment clean.

It added: “The police will continue to work with the relevant agencies to ensure a pleasant environment for all, even as residents and gamers alike indulge in the Pokemon phenomenon.”

Apart from ungracious behaviour, there have been nastier incidents involving the popular game.

Last Tuesday, for instance, the police said it made the first arrests relating to Pokemon hunting here over an altercation between a motorist and a player who was on the game while crossing the road.

The motorist had sounded his horn at the player and they came to blows after that, the police said in a news release. The incident happened at the car park entrance of Plaza Singapura on Aug 14.

The men, aged 28 and 33, were arrested on the spot for affray, which carries the maximum penalty of one year in jail and/or a fine of S$5,000.