SINGAPORE, Jan 9 — A family in Singapore is appealing to the public to look out for their Indonesian maid who had left their home in Punggol after apparently borrowing money from unlicensed moneylenders.
Ika Lestari, a 40-year-old teacher, said in social media posts last Friday (January 5) that she and her husband have been harassed by “loan sharks” even after they helped to pay a total loan sum of S$3,950 to three different people.
Their Indonesian domestic worker, Maemanah, was last seen on that Friday evening at Punggol Interchange, Ika added.
Ika told TODAY yesterday that Maemanah, who has been working with the family since January last year, had asked for advance payment of her salary last Thursday evening.
Ika was surprised at the request since she had just paid her salary on Dec 26. She added that this was not the first time that Maemanah had asked for advances.
Ika recalled that the worker appeared panicky last Thursday, and later claimed that she needed to pay someone who was waiting at the void deck of the housing block, which made Ika suspicious.
Maemanah later told her employers that she had borrowed money from loan sharks.
Ika said that she was contacted by three different people who asked her to pay Maemanah’s debt, which came up to a total sum of S$3,950.
The worker had apparently been borrowing money from the unlicensed moneylenders since Dec 10, her employer said.
“We thought everything was over after paying the S$3,950,” Ika said.
“Maemanah thanked me for helping to pay that night, although we have not agreed if she will stay on to work with us as I wanted to consult my husband, who was overseas on the day and returning only on Saturday.”
Missing a day later
A day later on Jan 5 at about 1pm, Ika received more messages from unknown phone numbers through WhatsApp, demanding for more repayments of Maemanah’s purported debts.
Ika called and texted her maid, but she did not respond.
Her husband then looked at the footage from their in-house surveillance camera, which captured Maemanah right before she left the house, dressed in a green top and beige headscarf.
Ika rushed back home from work after one of her two sons told her over the phone that the worker was not at home.
“When I reached home at around 2.30pm, I saw my locked drawer tampered with and opened, with Maemanah’s passport missing, together with her luggage bags and clothes.
“I noticed some blood stain on my room carpet,” she added.
Ika later found a knife outside along the corridor, which she believes had been used to open her drawer.
She made a police report at Punggol Neighbourhood Police Centre at around 4pm last Friday and later contacted the Ministry of Manpower to cancel Maemanah’s work permit.
Seen in public on the same day
Ika said that a member of public sent her a message through Instagram last Saturday, informing her that her maid was seen on Jan 5 evening at Punggol interchange together with a man, and she was wearing the same clothes last seen in the home surveillance footage.
“I feel that she (Maemanah) is still here in Singapore. There is no way she would be able to leave Singapore after I had made the police report.”
Ika said that the harassment by the unknown people still persists, but she had been advised by the police to ignore them and keep the house doors closed.
“After the incident, we decided to switch from the usual manual lock to a digital lock for both our house door and gate. That cost us more than S$2,000,” she said.
The police confirmed with TODAY that a report has been filed and that investigations are ongoing. — TODAY
