| SHE bangs her pots and pans together, and pounds the floor with a pestle. Or she clatters the padlock against her metal gate, or watches television with the volume turned up high. The woman, who appears to be in her late 30s or early 40s, is mentally slow and can't speak clearly.  | | Pictures: Jonathan Choo | She lives alone in a padlocked three-room flat on the eighth storey of an HDB block in Yishun. She did not seem to have the key to the front door. Asked if she could open the door, she said she could not. She has relatives, who appear to live elsewhere, say neighbours. One neighbour said she once spoke to the woman's sister. 'She told me she was afraid that (the woman) will not be able to find her way back on her own, and that's why they lock up the flat,' said the neighbour, Madam Neo, a housewife in her 50s. The woman does not ask to leave the flat and is apparently not being confined against her wishes. ANNOYING But her antics are annoying the neighbours and they have complained to HDB and the police many times. The police confirmed this, saying they've attended to calls from neighbours complaining of noise from the woman's flat. A spokesman for HDB also said they are aware of the situation. (See report on facing page.) Said neighbour Tay Su Lee, 55, who lives on a lower floor: 'She pounds the floor with a pestle, sometimes in the middle of the night. I get shocked out of my sleep.' Madam Ho, 60, who lives one floor below from the woman, said: 'I have to work every day. I barely get to sleep at all sometimes. 'Just when I'm about to fall asleep, the din starts again.' Neighbours said they are at their wits' end and they want the woman's relatives to put a stop to this. Said Madam Tay: 'I don't know why her family just leaves her alone here. How can they do that?' Some neighbours are also concerned for the woman's safety. Madam Neo said: 'What if there's a fire? She's stuck inside. She has no way to get out.' Madam Neo's daughter, Miss Toh, 25, added: 'Maybe it's because of loneliness and she's just venting her frustration by doing all those things, but that in turn affects all of us.' Madam Neo claimed the woman's family visits once a week, sometimes once in two weeks. When they come, they bring the woman groceries. Very rarely does the family take the woman out, she claimed. According to her, the woman has been living there, alone, for more than two years. The neighbours didn't have any trouble in the beginning. Said Madam Neo: 'I used to buy food for her or give her some biscuits because I felt bad for her since she was alone and she seemed to suffer from some mental illness. 'Then out of the blue she just started banging the padlock against the gate. Other times her TV is on very loudly and all this can go on for hours at any time of day or night. 'It started several months after she moved in.' Madam Neo said she had asked the woman to keep the noise down and be quiet. The woman complied, but not for long. Later on, the neighbours said, the woman started shouting at them and using vulgarities. Madam Neo said she no longer speaks to the woman. When The New Paper visited the block earlier this week, the woman's door was open and she was seated in the living room. Although she looked up when we greeted her, she ignored us. Through the locked gate, we could see two sofas, a rattan chair and a TV set inside. The kitchen had a table-top stove with a couple of pots on it. The flat looked reasonably well-kept, though it was a bit untidy. After we called out to her several times, she got up and walked, with a limp, to the gate. Her speech, in Teochew, with occasional Mandarin words, was slurred and incoherent. Questions had to be repeated several times before she seemed to get what we were asking. And her responses wouldn't always be right. For example, when we asked how old she was, at first she said she was 45. Then, she said was 35 and later she said she was 60. When we asked if she made noise by banging the padlock on the gate and pounding on the floor, she gave us a cheeky, toothless grin. She later admitted she made the noise, but could not tell us why. Then she said she was angry that her neighbours had called the police. She also said her sister had locked the flat because she used to go out and wander around. We couldn't reach the woman's family members as she said she did not have contact numbers for any relatives. Madam May Leow, 49, who lives two floors above the woman, said: 'We're fed up with the incessant noise and scoldings from her, but we actually don't blame her. She's probably bored and feeling claustrophobic cooped up in the flat. 'Her family should do something. This is not a nursing home or an old age home.'
HDB in touch with woman's family THE Housing and Development Board (HDB) has received complaints from residents and is aware of the situation. Last year, HDB officers and grassroots leaders visited the woman's unit to speak to her. The situation improved after that, an HDB spokesman said. However, the matter was raised with HDB again last month. The HDB has since been in touch with the woman's family members to help resolve the matter. The spokesman said: 'HDB has contacted the occupant's family members and advised them on the matter. 'We will continue to monitor the situation and liaise with the family members.' | 
