A photograph of two train vandals was posted to rail
operator SMRT's Facebook page on Tuesday (Oct 4) morning, Chinese
evening paper Shin Min Daily reported.
It was captioned with a taunt: "Was very nice to
spraypaint your smrt Train! thanks singapore!"
The picture on SMRT's Facebook page, which depicts two
men posing on the tracks in front of a train, was shared by a user
going by the name "Elton Henrys". The paper reported that the
picture has since been removed.
In November 2014, German nationals Elton Hinz and
Andreas Von Knorre broke into SMRT's Bishan Depot on three
occasions.
Hinz and Von Knorre, who had been working in Australia,
bought 12 cans of spray paint and yellow latex gloves upon their
arrival in Singapore.
During their third intrusion at the depot, they took a
photo together and spray-painted a train carriage with 10m-high
graffiti.
SMRT spent $13,650 on the clean-up operation for the
train, which was out of commission for over a week.
Within weeks, the duo were tracked down by the Thai
police, arrested by the Malaysian police, and extradited to
Singapore. They were sentenced to nine months' jail and three
strokes of the cane last March.
Earlier this year, footage was leaked of a previous
SMRT vandalism incident in 2011, where the perpetrators were never
apprehended.
American couple Jim Clay Harper and Danielle Bremner
posted a video this April showing two masked figures cutting a hole
in a fence and spray-painting a train.
SMRT was fined $200,000 for that security breach.
In 2010, Swiss national Oliver Fricker and Briton Dane
Alexander Lloyd carried out a similar crime at SMRT's Changi
Depot.
Fricker received seven months' jail and three strokes
of the cane, but Lloyd was never caught. SMRT was fined
$50,000.
ST