Stop harassing the BMW driver, says the pump attendant involved in viral Caltex petrol kiosk dispute

It’s been days since the actual incident took place and yet Singaporeans continue to be obsessed with the dispute between an elderly Caltex pump attendant and a BMW driver who remains accused by netizens of being a prick. This, despite conclusive police investigations finding that “no offence was disclosed”, and that the feud was simply a case of miscommunication.

Let’s run through the case once again.

• BMW Series 5 car driver claimed that pump attendant at a Caltex petrol station at Tampines had mistakenly filled up his car with S$135 worth of gas when he only asked for S$10 worth.
• Pump attendant agreed to pay the difference of S$125 when the driver insisted on only forking out S$10. Driver left with a full tank of petrol for just S$10.
• The whole incident was written about in a post on Facebook by a witness, Kelly Yeo.
• Online witch-hunt conducted. Netizens managed to uncover the driver’s identity and published his personal details, including his occupation and pictures.
• Fearing the safety of his family, the driver lodged a police report.
• Police investigations found no wrongdoing conducted, calling it a simple case of miscommunication. The driver was due to trade in his vehicle on the same day of the incident and did not require more than S$10 of fuel.
• Netizens continued to be dissatisfied over the official findings.

But throughout the past couple of days, nobody managed to get hold of the pump attendant himself to get his perspective — until yesterday, that is. Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, the man assured that Caltex is handling the matter and that the whole incident was a “misunderstanding”.

More importantly though, he told online vigilantes to stop hounding the BMW driver, who apparently has been fielding crank calls and messages since his identity was publicly outed by netizens.

“I feel that it is not necessary for netizens to be harassing the other party, and it should stop immediately,” said the pump attendant, who remains unidentified.

Caltex Singapore also urged for peace and quiet — a company spokesman noted to Shin Min that the pump attendant has requested for privacy. “We place the highest priority on the health and safety of our workforce, and the protection of our workplace and our communities,” added the spokesman.

Following the massive uproar from Kelly Yeo’s viral Facebook post, Caltex has also assured the public that the pump attendant does not have to bear the high cost of the fuel pumped.