Kidnapping scare in Jurong West: Boy lied about attempted abduction

SINGAPORE — The latest claim of an attempted kidnapping has been found by the Police to be false.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Jan 24), the Singapore Police Force said they have thoroughly investigated the case, and have “verified that the report is untrue and the boy had lied to his parents”.

Earlier, news had been circulating online on Wednesday of the attempted abduction of a boy at Jurong West Street 72.

The Police said that they treat “such reports seriously”.

“At the same time, we urge members of the public not to speculate or spread unsubstantiated information which may generate unnecessary alarm,” said the Police.

This is the third claim of attempted kidnapping in a week, with the Police having to debunk the cases.

On Thursday (Jan 18), the Police said the two incidents involving students from international schools being asked by strangers to board vehicles were not kidnapping attempts.

In the first case on Jan 11, a male driver had offered a ride to a student from United World College of South East Asia as it was raining.

A similar misunderstanding happened again when a female bus attendant on a school bus from Tanglin Trust School offered one of its students — who was walking towards the direction of the school — a lift.

But the school bus did not bear the name or logo of the school. The student declined the offer as she had earlier read a school circular advising them to be wary of strangers offering rides to students.

In another case, the Police said on Friday (Jan 19) that two boys who went missing in Sengkang were not victims of crime.

Javier Teo Ren Jie and Axel Lim Jun Wei were eventually located in Yishun – more than 10km from Sengkang where they were last seen.

Days later on Monday (Jan 22), Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam weighed in on the issue in a Facebook post, where he commented on the media reports of the international students as “kidnap scares”.

“We need to be careful of spreading untrue stories and unnecessarily alarming parents,” he said.

However, Minister Shanmugam added: “It is important for young children to be taught to be careful, when approached by strangers… Certainly, we should teach our children not to get into any vehicles with strangers.”