OMG you guys, as if we couldn’t sink any lower. When you read this article, please remember that every little action that a person does, or didn’t do, in this kind of situation plays a very big role in defining our community.
Shared on Facebook by Yasmin Ilyas was the worse possible outcome that a sexual harassment victim could face. Traumatised, her last resort was to expose the situationon Facebook in hopes that it could be a lesson to us all.
On December 13th, Yasmin went to her usual food stall hangout after work around 6pm with her friends. She had never used the toilet at the stall but this time it was an emergency. She admitted that it was not the cleanest toilet, but that was her only option.
We’ve seen these types of toilets everywhere; two toilet cubicles attached to one another and are only separated with a three-quarter wall.
When Yasmin went into one of the toilets, she could hear that someone entered the other one. But after a while, since she didn’t hear any running water, she felt insecure and was tempted to look up the ceiling.
Guess what she saw next? A red phone with its camera facing downward, suspiciously positioned on the divider!
Source: Facebook
Yasmin was super perturbed by this, saying, “I was shaking! I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.”
She tried to grab the phone but it was out of her reach. So she went out and discovered that the neighbouring toilet was locked. Suddenly a man walked into the washroom. Yasmin took this as an opportunity and asked him to help her get the phone, but shockingly the phone had disappeared.
Not long after, a guy called Am came out of the locked toilet. Yasmin immediately questioned him,
“What did you do in there? Did you record people in the toilet? Let me have a look at your phone!”
Fine, no one would give their phone easily especially to strangers, but the reasoning that Am gave simply didn’t add up.
“I didn’t bring a phone.” Then whose phone was that?
“I was taking wudhu.” But Yasmin was confident that she didn’t hear any running water.
“There was no water in there, so I changed my clothes.” Huh?
Obviously trying to escape, he anxiously insisted, “I need to go quickly, I have to visit my mom at the hospital.”
It was very frustrating and the first guy just stood there blankly, watching Yasmin struggling on her own.
After a while, an uncle walked in as well. Yasmin recognised the uncle as one of the food stall’s workers.
She became desperate. She explained the whole situation to the uncle, but he too just stood there blankly.
This created an opening and Am escaped!
Later, Yasmin was informed by the uncle that the boy was one of their workers so she went straight to their boss. Finally, things started to feel right when the boss quickly went after Am with his motorcycle upon receiving the report.
Another female worker there, Kak A, still backed Am up even though she herself had seen the phone on the divider before!
“Why would anyone in their right mind leave their phone way up on the wall?! It is so high up that you have to use a chair to actually reach there! Why do you have to defend him? Aren’t you ashamed?! He could possibly have a video of you too!” Yasmin debated, trying to reason with Kak A.
The food stall was in chaos. People tried to contact Am but failed, but some people told her to end it peacefully if the boy admitted it. By peacefully, they meant not lodging a police report, which is totally disturbing on multiple levels.
When he came back two hours later, they checked his phone and of course, no videos found.
Only after harsh interrogation did the guy come clean. Yasmin also managed to reveal that Am had not only used the toilet to film women, but also as a spot for him to take substances and get high. 7 people were there and witnessed his confession. He begged for Yasmin’s sympathy, claiming he was poor and using his sick mother as an alibi.
Some elderly witnesses there still insisted that she shouldn’t make a police report. Yasmin said in her post, “I reckon that these people most probably said so to protect the reputation of their own businesses. Selfish bastards!”
Source: Facebook
She took the phone nonetheless and lodged a police report on the next day. The event that followed was also super disappointing. Is this the current quality level of our officers?
When she handed the phone over to an officer, only known as Sergeant B, he said, “How can I do further investigations without proof?” He insisted that the phone was just not enough as a piece of evidence.
“I want to get the evidences, I know that the police are capable of retrieving lost data. I need the videos as proof,” she replied.
Making things worse, he turned the tables on the victim by saying that they couldn’t check on the phone without proof.
“But the guy already confessed and I have witnesses,” Yasmin tried to argue.
He then outrageously asked her, “Why would you need to lodge a report if you had settled the problem on your own?”
He told her, “I can’t (retrieve the videos), I don’t have evidence and this will have to go through a lot of procedures. I have very little power to do it.”
Starting to lose her mind, Yasmin told the police that he could’ve at least gotten Am’s IC number and full name from his contact number to include in the police report.
“I can’t do that, we don’t have evidence for it.”
Boi!!!
So in the end, Yasmin could only leave the phone in the hands of the officer and hoped that they would actually investigate her case. Chances are slim though since Sergeant B ended their conversation with, “It depends on me whether I want to investigate on this or not.”
Source: Facebook
As for the offender, he kept on refusing to meet up with the victim’s family afterwards and the case was left hanging.
Meanwhile, the location of the food stall based on the victim’s description has been named as KECHIK, located in Alor Setar and next to the Alora Grand Hotel, though it must be said that this is still speculation.
Please, never condone this kind of behaviour. By protecting the offender, you are just as guilty.
Also read: Watch: Creepy Pervert Caught Looking Under Toilet Door While Woman Was Inside
