Man Leaves His Laptop Unattended In A Cafe In Singapore To Test If It Gets Stolen
The former CNBC journalist attributes culture, great social economy, and high security surveillance for the low crime rates in Singapore.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 26 Oct 2022, 06:15 PM
A former journalist and YouTuber who creates content about tech, money, and cultures went viral recently for intentionally leaving his laptop out at a café in Singapore to see if the country is safe
In the almost one-minute video posted on TikTok and Instagram, Uptin Saiidi places his laptop and bag on a table at a Starbucks outlet.
"This country (Singapore) has one of the lowest crime rates in the world," he begins the video.
"So today, I'm leaving my laptop at a random Starbucks for one hour, not telling anyone to watch it, and then I'm going to go somewhere to have lunch."
The journalist then explains how Singapore has been able to eliminate crime, mentioning that the city-state had once achieved a 250-day streak of recording zero common types of crime.
"That means nobody got their phones stolen for more than eight months in the whole country," said the content creator, who has over 680,000 followers on TikTok.
The former CNBC journalist attributes three reasons for the country's low crime rates, saying, "Honesty and fairness [are] a big part of the culture here"
"Number two, basic needs are met, so people don't feel like they need to resort to crime. Its economy and government programmes make it so. Most people here live pretty well. You will never see a homeless person."
"And number three is surveillance. There are cameras everywhere that protect against crime, and the consequences of stealing are crazy high."
Uptin then shows an excerpt of a report by The Straits Times that mentions breaking into a house and stealing carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine in Singapore.
At the time of writing, the video has garnered over 20 million views on TikTok and caught the attention of several local media outlets
The video has been well-received by people all over the world.
Several netizens, believed to be Singaporeans, commented on Instagram that Uptin was just lucky, with one saying, "You are lucky. I'm a local, we don't do stupid acts like this."
"I got my phone stolen. Someone opened my bag while I wasn't looking in Singapore," added another person.
Meanwhile, many netizens thanked Uptin for explaining the possible reasons for Singapore's low crime rates, especially the point where he says people tend to avoid crime when basic needs are met.
This is not the first time Uptin has made a video on this topic. In January 2018, he ran an experiment of leaving his cell phone, laptop, and wallet at a food court for a report on CNBC International.
Separately, on 19 October, Uptin uploaded a video of him interviewing Muar member of parliament (MP) Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman while they had banana leaf for lunch.
They talked about corruption and the slow economic advancement in Malaysia in the one-minute-and-28-second video.
