Within a day after it was reported that a BMW driver had allegedly refused to pay for his full tank of fuel at Caltex Tampines, Singaporeans have found the vehicle, along with a host of other information about it.
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1. Hotly searched
Within several hours on April 15, 2018, typing “SLT” — the first three letters in the license plate prefix belonging to the BMW — would cause Google Search to autocomplete the entire alpha numeral string:
2. New license plate
“SLT” license plate prefix was out in August 2017:
But…
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3. Forum users have come to the conclusion that the vehicle is an old model, likely 10 years old
This is due to the car’s make and worn out look.
Therefore, old car but new license plate.
The guess is that it is bought second-hand.
4. Managed to dig up the vehicle’s road tax details
Other users point to the road tax details publicly available online.
5. Car was discovered to have been parked illegally in the central western part of Singapore
This was a day after the incident.
There was apparently a parking ticket visible on the windshield.
However, forum users claimed the decal has been removed from the windscreen, so the residential address the car is registered with is not revealed.
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6. Online details reveal the car purchases season parking in Tampines
7. Chinese newspaper reported someone tried to pay the outstanding bill after the incident
Translation of last paragraph: “When the reporter went to the petrol kiosk, the staff present did not want to be interviewed. The staff involved in the incident was on off that morning. But based on what another colleague said, someone came back after the incident and paid off the outstanding bill.”
Caltex has said the staff involved did not pay anything.
It is not clear if the person who allegedly returned to pay the bill is the BMW driver.
8. One forum user gave an Einstein explanation as to how the instruction of the BMW driver might have been unclear
“Pump fuel ten” means pump 10 dollars worth of fuel, but sounds like “pump full tank”.
Cool story bro.
Reliability of information
All the information presented above are publicly available and can be found via search engines and government portals open for public access.
Other information found on forums and across social media either making unsubstantiated claims and allegations or second-guessing the possible motive of the driver, have not been reproduced here.
Other details that have not been reproduced include the exact locations where the BMW was last seen.
Caltex response:
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Over the weekend, the latest Singaporean Viral Issue revolved around an incident that took place in Tampines on Saturday afternoon — an incident that united the nation against an alleged High SES dastard who took advantage of an elderly Caltex pump attendant.
The pump diaries
In a post on the Caltex Singapore Facebook page, a woman by the name of Kelly Yeo wrote about a BMW driver who got out of paying the total cost of filling up a full tank. Here’s what happened, according to her anecdote:
At about 2pm on Saturday, a driver of a BMW Series 5 car claimed that a pump attendant had mistakenly filled up his car with S$135 worth of gas when he only asked for S$10 worth.
He refused to pay the full amount, insisting that he would only fork out the S$10 he asked for.
The pump attendant — who looked to be in his 60s — was called to the cashier counter. He clarified that he heard the driver saying a “full tank refill,” but the driver denied everything.
Surprisingly, the pump attendant conceded and said that he would absorb the S$125 for the full tank of petrol due to his alleged oversight.
The driver was obviously thrilled to hear this and “walked away smugly.”
“The customer could have responded gentlemanly and be gracious to forgive by paying for the petrol since his vehicle would need to consume it anyway,” wrote Yeo. “Alternatively, he could have paid for a partial amount instead of making the elderly pump attendant bear the full $125. Unfortunately, this was not so.”
The disturbing incident prompted Yeo to write in to Caltex in a bid to alleviate the financial burden of the elderly uncle, pointing out that S$125 takes away a significant amount of a pump attendant’s monthly salary. She also proposed more measures at Caltex petrol stations to ensure that pump attendants aren’t abused in the very same way.
“Would Caltex consider waiving this amount or allowing the pump attendant to pay at cost?” she queried.
Caltex responds
As you would imagine with these kinds of stories, the post went viral and was shared and republished on numerous other Facebook pages. Fortunately, Caltex Singapore was quick to respond. On Sunday morning, it posted an update on the situation and assured the public that the pump attendant would not have to bear the high costs borne from the alleged misunderstanding.
“Do be assured that our station manager, together with the management team are looking into this issue now and an investigation is ongoing,” it wrote, advising everyone to refrain from looking for the BMW driver in subject.
Man found
But as Singaporeans are wont to do in viral cases of misdeeds, justice was sought after through an online witch-hunt. Last night, the BMW Series 5 sedan was found parked at a loading and unloading bay of an HDB estate along Jalan Teck Whye.
Meanwhile, alleged pictures of the dude have also appeared on various pages and forums, but we won’t publish it here for the lynch mobs. Investigations are still ongoing, and we’ll update this article when more details arrive.
A senior pump attendant at Caltex offered to pay $125 for fuel after filling the tank of a BMW, allegedly by mistake.
A senior pump attendant who filled up a car with a full tank offered to top up $125 the driver had not paid due to an alleged mistake.
Caltex Singapore is investigating the incident, which took place at a petrol station in Tampines on Saturday.
In response to the incident, which has since gone viral on Facebook, Caltex Singapore said yesterday the attendant "did not bear any financial obligation".
Facebook user Kelly Yeo wrote to Caltex about the incident in a post on Saturday. Another user, Willie Kok Heng Chua, shared Ms Yeo's post on Saturday night, drawing more than 24,000 shares and 6,700 comments within 12 hours.
In the post, she said the BMW driver had insisted he would pay only $10 for the petrol he had asked for, and not the $135 for the full tank.
The pump attendant, who looked to be in his 60s, told the cashier he would bear the rest of the bill. The attendant said he heard the driver ask for a full tank, which the driver denied.
Netizens asked if the driver could have paid for the petrol, as he would have used it anyway.
Others wanted Caltex to allow the pump attendant to pay just a partial amount.
Caltex said in its post that investigations are ongoing.
When The Straits Times visited the station yesterday, attendants said the driver had said he had borrowed the car and was only replacing the fuel he used.
They had not encountered such incidents before, and said they were grateful the company would be absorbing the cost.
They said attendants were reminded to check with customers before starting to fill up their vehicles. It is also known to workers that they will be made to bear the cost if they make a mistake.
"A lot of people have come up to offer the attendant money after reading what happened," said an attendant, who declined to be named.
The BMW driver and the car he was driving at the time of the incident. Kelly Yeo Facebook page
Public sentiment can take on a life of its own in the age of social media.
One man, who allegedly refused to pay for the full cost of petrol mistakenly pumped into the car he was driving, is now facing the heat caused by his actions.
According to Facebook user Kelly Yeo, the driver of a BMW Series 5 had claimed that a petrol station attendant had misheard request to pump just S$10 worth of petrol into the car.
As a result, he refused to pay the full S$135 price of a full tank of petrol at the Caltex station in Tampines on Saturday (Apr 14).
“Instead of creating a scene by engaging in an argument with the customer, the elderly pump attendant calmly informed the cashier to let the customer pay $10 and he would personally absorb the rest of the cost.
“As a result, the customer walked away smugly paying a mere $10 payment for a full tank of petrol for his BMW Series 5 vehicle,” Kelly Yeo wrote on Caltex Singapore’s Facebook page.
She also said she was highlighting the issue because she was concerned that the pump attendant, who is in his 60s, would have to fork out a sum of money despite earning a “meager salary”.
“I am concerned that if no effective standard operating systems are defined, such practices of having pump attendants to bear the price discrepancies can lead to abuse (sic),” she wrote.
Ms Yeo’s post has so far been shared close to 1,500 times.
As a full-time employee, the elderly attendant would be drawing an average monthly salary of around S$1,300, Shin Min Daily News reported on Sunday (Apr 15).
The report added that some members of the public who read about the incident later showed up offering to help the attendant with the cost.
Although Caltex Singapore has since responded to clarify that the pump attendant was not made to pay the cost of the petrol, social media users who read about the incident were already riled up to the point of no return.
And as we all know by now, the internet never forgives and certainly does not forget.
By Sunday afternoon, a Facebook page dedicated to “hunting” the BMW driver down had already been set up.
And by Monday morning, there were already six contributions to the page, each with either a photo of the alleged driver, or information about his occupation, workplace and car registration details.
Branding him as “SG Caltex Bully”, an administrator of the page said that the page was set up to “expose this idiot”.
“Do not bring harm to the family or expose the innocent. We just want him to remember we should make the world better, not to cheat or make people suffer,” the administrator added.
Some users on online forums even went so far as to track down the registration, season parking and road tax details of the BMW, even coming to the conclusion that it was an old car with a new license plate.
The car was even photographed with a ticket on its windscreen for being illegally parked at an HDB estate.
One of the forum threads on Hardware Zone has garnered so much interest, it received 2,710 replies in less than two days.
