SINGAPORE – Such is the life of the city rat: One moment, it is feasting on an endless buffet of bread and cheese in a supermarket, and seconds later, it is scampering in search of a safe place to hide.
This is the story of one such rat discovered at a NTUC Fairprice outlet in Hougang’s Kang Kar Mall last week.
The rat, which appears to be as long as a loaf of bread, had already munched through packets of raisin bread, wholemeal buns, walnut bread, Singapore-style pandan bread and good old high-fibre white bread, when a shopper caught it red-handed at the back of the bread shelf.
Startled, the rat paused for two seconds before launching its escape behind even more loaves of bread.
The shopper, 37-year-old delivery driver Sun Yu Ming, quickly devised a plan to force the rodent out of hiding. As he slammed packet after packet of bread against the bottom shelves, the rat frantically searched for a way out of the war zone and eventually had no choice but to leave the shelves and enter the wide-open aisle.
When it emerged, the rat jumped and scurried as fast as it could away from Mr Sun, who seemed bent on getting it caught.
The tiny animal then headed straight for the vegetable section as if it had already planned and memorised an escape route specifically for a situation like this. Although Mr Sun gave chase, it soon disappeared behind the baskets of vegetables and found safety in its new hiding place.
Photos of leftovers from the rat’s feast and a video of the chase was uploaded by Mr Sun on Facebook earlier this week. The photos and video have already reached more than 5,500 shares since, as netizens expressed shock and disgust that such a thing could even take place.
Mr Sun elaborated on the incident in his post, writing that a supervisor at the supermarket did not appear concerned when he reported what he saw.
“He still could reply: ‘There’s rats and you want me to catch?'”, Mr Sun wrote.
On Wednesday (June 1), Mr Sun uploaded another video, with a short voice recording purportedly of his exchange with the staff member.
In the recording, a man can be heard saying in Mandarin that the rat had also helped itself to other food items such as pork and chicken.
A few hours earlier, NTUC Fairprice acknowledged that a rat was indeed found in its Kang Kar Mall store. It added that the rat had already been captured on Saturday (May 28), before Mr Sun posted the video online.
“The store has since disposed all products that may have been compromised by the pest and have sanitized the area thoroughly,” the supermarket chain said in a statement on its Facebook page.
Officers from the National Environment Agency had given the outlet “a good report” two months prior to the incident, the statement said, adding that the outlet’s pest problems stem from “external sources”.
“We thus collaborate with external parties like town councils on preventive measures. Be assured that should any pests be found in our stores, we will get our pest control specialists to respond and be on site within two hours.”
The Straits Times reported on Thursday that pest control specialists had done checks at the store from February to May.
A spokesman from Fairprice was quoted as saying: “In May alone, they visited the store another five times”.
Despite these repeated measures, it seems the rat Mr Sun spotted last week had picked up some very important survival skills and managed to still binge on all the goodies it could get its paws on.
But alas in the end, as the life of the city rat goes, its own brazenness was the very thing that put its life of opulence to and end – or at least we hope so.
Video screengrabs
ljessica@sph.com.sg
