The New Paper - 29 Mar
2004
Missing dog and lead to obscene SMS
By Joyce Lim
SHE sent out 32,000 flyers looking for her missing pet dog - and
what she received was obscene messages and requests for sex.
Miss Eve Chan, 29, distributed the flyers with her dog's photo
around the Simei neighbourhood where it was last seen.
She and her friend, Miss Von Lo, 29, put their handphone numbers on
the flyers, hoping to be contacted by someone who had found the
black and silver miniature Schnauzer, called Sheila.
They received about 20 lewd calls and SMSes within three days of
sending out the flyers.
Some callers even asked for sex in return for finding the
dog.
It's turned them off Singapore men.
Miss Chan, an assistant manager, described the men as 'cruel and
desperate'.
CANCELLED HONG KONG HOLIDAY
She misses her dog badly and even cancelled her holiday to Hong
Kong when she found out it had gone missing.
On Mar 16, Miss Chan had left her 9-year-old dog with Miss Lo, who
lives in a terrace house in Simei, as she was leaving for Hong Kong
the next day.
But the dog went missing the next morning, before Miss Chan had
even boarded the plane.
Miss Chan said: 'Sheila is like my daughter. We're very attached to
each other. Obviously, these people can't understand how worried I
am over my dog.
'I find it hard to believe that there are such cruel people who
would send me such lewd SMS messages. They can be so insensitive,'
she added, as tears welled up in her eyes.
They distributed the flyers in Simei and Tampines estates the day
after the dog went missing.
On the very first day, she received an SMS inquiring about the
reward for finding her dog.
'The person asked if I was a man or woman. But he did not say if he
had my dog.'
Two days later, Miss Lo received a phone call from a man asking for
sex as a reward for finding the dog.
'He asked if the owner of the dog was willing to sleep with him if
he found her dog,' related Miss Lo, a human resources
executive.
For those few days after the flyers went out, Miss Chan and Miss Lo
received about 10 prank or lewd calls every day.
Some even arrived in the middle of the night.
'I would get very anxious each time my phone rang,' said Miss
Lo.
'But when I answered, the caller would remain silent and would just
hang up on me.'
When Miss Chan's fiance saw one of the lewd messages, the usually
mild-mannered man was so angry, he said he wanted to punch the
sender.
Another caller, said Miss Lo, claimed to be an N-level student and
asked if he could get sex in return for finding the dog.
She said: 'The people who sent us those lewd SMSes are sick in
their mind.
'They seem more interested in the gender of the owner than the
reward.'
But, despite their bitter experience, the duo are not giving up
their search.
Miss Chan has since raised the reward from $100 to $1,000, hoping
to find the dog which has now been missing for 11 days.
some Singaporeans are just plain sick and perverted, I can
empathize with the lost of ur beloved pet, but its another thing to
be subjected to this sort of crap the way "our gracious public"
behaves nowadays...
