Funny Things Do Happens

This article was published on the Newpaper Website on Sunday.

Sorry, it's not our tree
Van stuck for six days. NParks says tree is on M'sian land
By Crystal Chan
April 23, 2006

THE tree was on Malaysian railway land. His van was on Singapore soil.And when the 10m tree fell on the van in Hindhede Road in Bukit Timah last Saturday, vehicle dealer Lee Wee Buang's problems began.

His van was crushed.

But the National Parks Board (NParks) could not remove the tree as it was on Malaysian land.

And police could not help Mr Lee, 52, as it was not obstructing traffic.So, for six days, the van and the tree remained there, between the railway land and Kar Yeng Five Districts General Association Building where his office is.

They were finally removed yesterday.Mr Lee, who has been in the business for about 20 years, said in Mandarin: 'I've always parked my vans behind the building.'
The tree, which fell in heavy rain, crushed the roof and left side of the white Mitsubishi van. The front windscreen was smashed.
Said Mr Lee: 'I feel the loss keenly because I bought the van only last month. Luckily, it is second-hand and I paid only $10,000 for it.
'If it had been a brand-new vehicle, I would have even more xin tong (heartache).'

PRIVATE PROPERTY
Mr Lee's daughter, Cheng Ai, called the police. 'But they said that as the incident happened on private property and the tree wasn't obstructing traffic, they wouldn't do anything.'

In an e-mail reply to The New Paper, police spokesman Siow Cheng Cheng said: 'Police will be deployed to divert and manage the traffic should there be a danger to motorists or obstruction to traffic. In this case, the fallen tree and the damaged vehicle did not pose any danger or obstruction.'

Mr Lee then tried to get NParks to help.

But NParks said it could not do anything as the tree stood on land belonging to Malaysia's KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) railway station.

Now let me sort out the confusions, Tree is growing on land belonging to Malaysia in Singapore, Tree falls over to the Singapore side crashing a Singapore registered van. In short, it's Singapore's van crashed by Malaysia's tree in Singapore. Now that concerns National Security.

Sounds funny to me.....(^^)