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Tag: BMW

  • Singaporean Almost Loses Son In JB After BMW Was Stolen

    Singaporean Almost Loses Son In JB After BMW Was Stolen

    He left his seven-year-old son alone in his BMW for five minutes as he ran an errand while in Johor Baru.

    When he returned, both the car and his son were gone.

    He had to wait for what must have seemed like a lifetime, before he was reunited with his son, six hours later.

    The boy was found unhurt about 6km away from where he was taken, reported Shin Min Daily News.

    It all started at about 4pm last Saturday (Aug 20), when the man in his 50s left his son in the car while he went to buy milk powder.

    The white BMW was parked in front of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shop at Taman Melodies, a suburb in Johor Baru.

    Speaking to the Chinese daily, the TCM shopkeeper, known only as Mr Lee, 61, said the man went into the shop and bought two tins of milk powder worth RM180 (S$60).

    He left after paying, but returned to change one of the milk powder tins.

    When he left again after five minutes, he found that the Singapore-registered car was gone, along with his son in it.

    Mr Lee told Shin Min that the man became flustered and borrowed his phone, attempting to call his own phone that he had left in the car.

    But he could not get through.

    He then called the Malaysian Police to make a report.

    Pictures of the boy were uploaded on Facebook shortly after the boy and car went missing, with the posts asking others to look out for the boy.

    The posts, put on behalf of the man, were widely circulated with at least 7,000 shares.

    Mr Lee said the man told him that he had not locked the car doors.

    Thankfully, the boy was found unhurt later that day, at about 10pm, around the Danga Bay area.

    But the car has yet to be found.

    The police confirmed that a police report of the incident was made.

    Shin Min also spoke to workers in the Taman Melodies area, who said that the area was relatively safe, though people were still advised to be careful.

    A photo of the boy after he was found was later uploaded to Facebook to show concerned netizens that he was safe.

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Ah Pek Parks BMW In Motorcycle Lots, Chides Motoryclist, Claims To Be Civil Servant

    Ah Pek Parks BMW In Motorcycle Lots, Chides Motoryclist, Claims To Be Civil Servant

    **Update: Errant parking offence has been reported via onemotoring. It’s over to LTA now. Thanks everyone who pm-ed me with suggestions and information! **

    So this just happened at the carpark opposite Ghim Moh market, 20 Ghim Moh Road.

    I walked back to my bike and saw a BMW parked next to my ride. Which was weird because I thought I remembered that space was marked out for motorcycles. So I looked again to double check, true enough, the car had parked in the space meant for not one, not two, but three motorcycle lots.

    At this point, the driver (a skinny bespectacled Chinese man in his late fifties?) alighted. He saw me looking at the markings on the ground, and asked if there’s a problem. Thinking that he might have been mistaken, I asked him if he knew he was parking over the motorcycle lots.

    Guess what? He retorted in a challenging tone that I had my own parking space, and that I shouldn’t care. Said he ‘wasn’t parking’, then proceeded to lock his car and walk away.

    I don’t know why, I took a photo of his beautifully parked car.
    He came back and asked if I took his photo (he must have been lurking around), looking half worried and half frustrated.

    (No Uncle, you are not Brad Pitt, why would I want to take your photo?)

    I told him since he didn’t do anything wrong, he has nothing to worry about.

    His retaliation? He pompously announced that since I took ‘his photo’, he would take mine as well. I gladly obliged.
    (Sure, be my guest. My lovely Vespa is parked perfectly within my bike lot).

    You know, under normal circumstances, I might have just let it go. I’ve never reported errant drivers, I don’t know which authority is in charge, and it’s really just too much trouble. But what this uncle said next really made me want to do something about it.

    If he weren’t so obnoxiously rude, I might have let it go. He threatened me.

    ‘DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I’M A CIVIL SERVANT YOU KNOW!’

    (Wrong threat. I used to be a civil servant and some part of me still feels like I’m part of the service; so this only made my blood boil. What a disgrace you are to the rest of the responsible, hardworking civil servants I know!)

    ‘YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE MESSING WITH! YOU ARE PLAYING WITH YOUR ARSE!’

    (Hmm, what kind of a metaphor is that?)

    All the while ranting that he’s ‘not parking’, ‘not parking’. At which point I pointed out the red painted words on the ground to him – ‘NO PARKING’.

    Mr All-Important-Civil-Servant, if you didn’t do anything wrong, why did you hastily drive away then? All the while reminding me loudly that I’m ‘playing with my arse’.

    Mr All-Important-Civil-Servant, you are a disgrace to the public administration. I humbly suggest you use your Skillsfuture credits for a parking refresher course. Or basic etiquette. Or language improvement.

    This would have been wonderful material for a teachable moment. What a waste!

    Just for you, I’m going to educate myself on the procedures of reporting errant parking offenders. And don’t worry, it’s no trouble at all.

    ‪#‎civilservantsbehavingbadly‬ ‪#‎bmwparkingftw‬ ‪#‎dotherightthing‬

     

    Source: Carrine Yeo

  • Egotistic Former Bank Employee Would Rather Eat Instant Noodles Than Let Go Of His BMW

    Egotistic Former Bank Employee Would Rather Eat Instant Noodles Than Let Go Of His BMW

    We’ve often received stories about people (or friends of people) that sank into a snowball of debts after overbuying with their credit cards or their payslips. However, this single story stood out, because he isn’t bankrupt, and he looked perfectly successful in front of others, but deep inside him, he’s struggling just because of a car.

    Johnny (may or may not be his real name) worked in a local bank when he graduated from university, and admitted that he had a few job offers even before he graduated. His starting pay was relatively high: at more than $4,500, he earned more than his peers and was set for a debt-free life.

    In the first few months of his work, he had some sort of “culture shock”: when he was schooling, he gave private tuition and was earning about $600 a month. All of a sudden, that ballooned to $3,600 (after his CPF deduction)—that’s way too much for him to handle all of a sudden!

    He applied for almost all the credit cards that promoters in MRT stations offered to him—one by one, he received tens of credit cards and was feeling “rich” from the credit limit given to him. In fact, he thought he had become “$100,000 richer” simply because everyone was so willing to loan him money.

    But the trouble didn’t start from those plastic cards. It started when he decided to buy a car.

    During that time, it was still possible to buy a car with $0—all they needed was his payslip and ta-da: he could walk away with a brand new car, having only to fulfil the monthly instalment. But here’s the thing: the monthly instalment must be fulfilled, because failing which, he would lose a reasonable amount of money.

    Johnny got a BMW (he didn’t specify which model) and paid $1,000++ every month for the monthly instalment. All was good (not very, but to him, it was)—with him earning $3,600, he could still survive on a $1,000++ monthly expenses.

    But a few years later, he lost his job.

    We’re not sure whether he was retrenched or fired, but even when he lost his job, he couldn’t let go of his car. He claimed that the monthly instalment must still be fulfilled, or he’ll lose “tens of thousands of dollars”.

    The first thing he did was to find a job—fast. He got one as an executive in a financial institution, but the take-home pay of about $2,000 was just enough to pay for his instalment, petrol and maintenance.

    Then he admitted something: he could have let go of his car and pay his debts slowly. But he didn’t want to—because his friends, family members and everyone around him knew him as the successful banker who drove a BMW. He would rather eat instant noodles and bread than to lose his only status symbol that was “keeping him alive”.

    It has been a few years now, and with him drawing only $2,000++ and paying $2,000 for his car monthly, his concern now is what would happen next year (2017), when the COE of his car expires. He won’t have enough to renew the COE or buy a new car.

    Well, when he posed the question in his email, he replied to it himself: “What were I thinking?’

    Seriously…Johnny, all we can say is that you’re not alone, and thank you for sharing your story, because it really showed us that the latest policies about car ownership have helped people and not harm others.

    After all, the moral of the story is simple: don’t buy a big hat if you’ve got a small head.

     

    Source: www.goodyfeed.com

  • Renter Uncontactable, Owner Of BMW Who Put Up Car For Rent On Carousell In ICU

    Renter Uncontactable, Owner Of BMW Who Put Up Car For Rent On Carousell In ICU

    Offering his car for rent on online marketplace Carousell landed a man in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), after he was so stressed out that he suffered a heart attack.

    The man had rented out his BMW for a month at $2,300 and the renter disappeared with the car. Two weeks after the $35,000 car was due to be returned, he was still uncontactable.

    Car jockey Taufiq Hidayat, 28, related his father’s experience to The New Paper. His father did not want to be named.

    “My father was so worried sick about his car that he suffered a heart attack last Saturday at about 3am and had to be warded in the ICU,” said Mr Taufiq.

    When told about the laws governing car rentals, Mr Taufiq said: “I’m sure if my father was aware of the regulations, he wouldn’t have rented out his car.”

    The Oct 15 deal, made through Carousell, was between Mr Taufiq’s father and a man who called himself Thomas.

    “The next day, Thomas came with a man called Muthu, who was in his mid-50s. Thomas introduced Muthu as his uncle,” said Mr Taufiq.

    “He told my father that Muthu was the one who wanted to rent the car.”

    Mr Taufiq’s father then took a picture of Muthu’s identity card and made him sign a handwritten contract. The $2,300 was paid in full.

    That was the last time Mr Taufiq’s father saw his car.

    On Nov 15, the day that the car was supposed to be returned, Thomas was uncontactable.

    “My father first thought that Thomas was busy, so he just let it slide and sent him another reminder,” said Mr Taufiq.

    Two days passed but there was still no news from Thomas.

    “When we called him, we could hear the dial tone but no one answered the call,” added Mr Taufiq.

    “Even when we sent him a message on Whatsapp, we saw the blue ticks (an indication that the message was read) but there wasn’t any reply.”

    Mr Taufiq then went to Muthu’s house to demand for the car.

    “When Muthu saw me, he seemed quite afraid,” he said.

    Muthu told him Thomas’ real name and admitted that they were not related. They weren’t even close friends, he claimed.

    Mr Taufiq made a police report that day.

    Over the past month, he also found out from summonses that the car had been cited for traffic offences, including speeding and beating a red light. There were over 20 fines, totalling $1,000.

    SIMILAR EXPERIENCE

    On Nov 27, Mr Taufiq posted on Facebook everything that happened. His post received more than 490 shares and caught the eye of Mr Shahrukh, who runs a car rental company.

    Four months ago, Mr Shahrukh, 22, had a terrible experience when he leased a Nissan Presage to a man with the same name.

    The man had said he wanted to rent the car for a week but after taking the car for a four-hour ride, he demanded a refund “because he didn’t like the car”.

    Mr Shahrukh did not give him any money back.

    In October, there was also a complaint against the same man on online classified site Gumtree.

    A Gumtree member with the username Mouzzammil made a fraud alert alleging that he had been cheated by the man.

    The man had taken Mouzzammil’s car for a one-day rental and abandoned it two days later, leaving the keys on one of the front tyres. Mouzzammil claimed the man texted him the location of the car.

    “Fuel nearly empty, and scammed of taxi fares and rent for a day,” he wrote, referring to theMONEY he spent taking a taxi to the car.

    Police investigations are ongoing.

    Laws for car rentals

    According to the Land Transport Authority website, private car owners are allowed to rent out their cars only if they fulfil two main requirements:

    • The car owner has to ensure adequateINSURANCE coverage for the period of rental.
    • Private cars can be rented out only from 7pm on Friday to 7am of the following Monday and from 7pm on the eve of public holidays to 7am on the firstWORKING DAY following the public holiday.

    Lawyer Lawrence Lang said that many car owners are reluctant toPAY for car rental insurance because of its high premium.

    “The main stumbling block of the scheme is theINSURANCE COVERAGE. OwnersPAY insurance according to the risk of claiming it,” said the insurance and construction litigation lawyer.

    “So when you pay for car rental insurance, you are assuming that the person who rents the car is at high risk, hence the high premium.”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg