There is a coffeeshop I go to most days for lunch.
3 weeks ago, I noticed 2 men drinking and chatting at the coffeeshop. The each hold a Blackberry and are always typing text on it. Rather odd as these 2 man dress like HDB uncles using Blackberries. Occasionally, one of the 2 men, the older one would get so drunk, he would slough on the chair high from alcohol. Then the younger man will take over his Blackberry to text.
One day while heading for the toilet, the older man and myself bump into each other. The man pushed me and starting hurling vulgarities loudly at me. I could smell the alcohol in his breath so I thought to myself better keep quiet and not provoke him anymore. The younger man rushed over and said, "Sorry hor, he a bit drunk".
2 days later, I was at the same coffeeshop and saw the same 2 men. This time both of them were sober. The older man watched me for about 20 minutes. I tried not to look back as I suspected he might still be fuming over the incident 2 days ago. I tell you it was a long uneasy 20 minutes....I tried to concentrated on eating my chicken rice quickly so that I could get up and go. All of a sudden, I saw the old man stand up and walk towards me. I told myself "opps...gone case". The guy had tatoos all over. I was thinking of running but my legs weakened a little.
The man sat down at my table. Now my heart racing a bit. Then he said, "The other day shouted at you...sorry hor". He then asked me what I do for a living since he had been seeing me at the coffeeshop. I told him I had not been working for quite some time. He then asked me, "So you need money?". I was thinking maybe he is loan shark or something. Since he was speaking to me quite nicely, I joked a bit, "Need money. Of course need money lah, I have mother to support hor. But don't try to lend me money lah, I don't borrow one".
He then said, "I have job for you. You want?". "Can make $50-$100 a day, only spend less than 2-3 hours. You wan?", he asked. I told him that I was not sure because I didn't know what the job was about. He then described what he wanted me to do. Every morning, I would have to go to a list of 3 to 4 apartment addresses to collect money stated next to the address. I interjected "no, I'm not going to be loanshark runner". He said, "Stupid. Shut up and listen first". I would have to go to these apartments knock on the door, at each apartment a woman would open the door and give me an envelop full of money. I can go in to count it. Once verified correct, I would go to an ATM and deposit the money using one of 5 Maybank account he would give me then keep the receipt as proof that I had collected and deposited the money. He said it was money from some kind of rental scheme for foreign workers and paid everyday roughly $2-$3K at each apartment. If I'm willing to also to buy and deliver food to those apartments he can give me additional $20 over the cost of the food so I can make total $70 per day for collecting money and delivering food. He asked me, "How? You want the job?". I was thinking the whole scheme looked very mysterious but nothing illegal....not too sure. I told him I needed time to think and lied that I had another job offer pay me $3K for full time job. He told me to get back to him within 2 days for "can forget it".
I went back to think about the "job" for a while. The part that I couldn't understand is why I needed to buy and deliver food for women in the apartment. Why couldn't they buy food for themselves. Another thing is why can't he collect the rent himself...why must it be done everyday...never heard of people paying rent everyday. Anyway, I still don't need money badly yet and without a car going to these places not so convenient. Without full understanding of what was going on, I thought best to give it a miss. A few days later after the job offer, I noticed the 2 men were no longer around....I couldn't even turn down the job personally. I asked another drinker if he saw the 2 men. He told me they were both arrested by police right at the favorite spot where they were using often seen using their Blackberries. I asked the drinker if he knew why they were arrested....he replied he also dunno, all he knew was they were jolly good fellas who didn't have to work.
I think they were most probably habouring illegal workers luckily I didn't get involved otherwise will be in Changi chalet for a few years.
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