A Singaporean couple has taken to social media to remind others to be on their guard whenever they go to Johor Bahru for massage sessions.
This comes after they found themselves having their privacy and personal decency violated following an unfortunate event at a spa in Taman Sri Tebrau.
Unwanted interruption
In a lengthy Facebook post shared on Aug 31, the OP said she, her husband, and two family members went to the spa for their two-hour sessions, where she and her husband were given a private single room, while the other two shared a VIP room.
35 minutes into the session, the OP alleged that a man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt came upstairs while yelling that he was looking for a driver.
“However, from what we personally witnessed, he did not call out any vehicle registration number or identify the specific person he was looking for.
Instead, he went along the private massage rooms and opened doors to look inside. Eventually, our private room door was opened too,” she wrote.
This left the OP and her husband deeply shaken as they were in a state of partial undress with their backs exposed while lying face-down.
She added that the man “stood outside and could see into the room until the massage therapist chased him away.”
Things were no better for the OP’s other family members, where a man knocked on their VIP room’s door and requested for a pillow.
This caused one of them to stop the massage session, put on her clothes, and escalate the matter to management.
Confrontation
The spa’s manager acknowledged that the incident should have never happened and admitted fault.
He also offered compensation to the OP, but it was declined as she felt it “was no longer about money”.
Police were eventually called to the scene, where two police officers took the entire group’s passport details and told them to make a report at Balai Pelangi.
As they were making a police report there, someone from the spa turned up to help in identifying the man who barged into their private room. However, the group didn’t agree with the identification as they believed it was a different person.
The OP also said that upon checking the translated version of the police report, she found some parts didn’t accurately reflect what happened and instead wrote their own account in English.
She added the group were referred to Larkin District Police Station, where they waited from 1.33am until 4.30am before they were told to wait for further contact from Balai Pelangi.
‘Blind spot’ revealed by CCTV footage
The OP also reviewed CCTV footage of the incident and was shocked to find that it does not clearly capture who actually enters the individual massage room due to a limitation/blind spot.
“This is extremely concerning to us. If customers are placed inside private rooms and CCTV cannot establish who enters those rooms, then establishments need to have proper access-control procedures to protect customers,” she added.
Towards the end of the post, the OP said she penned the post not to seek for compensation, but to warn others, especially those who travel to JB often for massages.
She also provided the following checklist:
- Check whether your private-room door can actually be locked or secured from inside.
- Ask who is authorised to enter the room.
- Do not assume that “VIP room” or “private room” automatically means nobody can enter.
- Keep your valuables secure.
- If somebody enters while you are undressed without proper reason or permission, stop the session and document what happened.
- Preserve receipts, CCTV footage, photographs, recordings and messages if an incident occurs.
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