Grandfather stuck on Bishan walkway roof after trying to retrieve grandson's toy
An elderly man tried to help his nine-year-old grandson retrieve a toy aeroplane from the roof of a covered walkway on Tuesday afternoon.
He ended up being stuck on the roof for about an hour and had to be taken down by Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers.
A 43-year-old neighbour, who wanted to be known as Ms Wahida, sent a video of the incident at the covered walkway near Block 109 Bishan Street 12 to citizen journalism website Stomp.
The covered walkway has a lower section covering the pavement and a higher section covering the road.
Ms Wahida told The New Paper that at about 1.50pm, she saw the elderly man take a ladder and attempt to retrieve the red toy aeroplane.
She said: "After he managed to climb up to the first level, he pulled his ladder up and realised it was too short to reach the higher level."
A 73-year-old neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Mr Lim, told TNP: "The ladder was very short and there was nobody to steady it."
The video on online news site Stomp shows the elderly man squatting on the edge of the lower section of the covered walkway and talking to police officers as SCDF personnel arrived at the scene.
After SCDF officers reached the first section of the covered walkway, the elderly man could be seen gesturing to the SCDF officer, pointing to the higher section.
Mr Lim said: "He (The elderly man) refused to come down until he got the plane."
After a conversation with the man, an SCDF officer used a ladder to go up to the higher section of the walkway and retrieved the toy aeroplane.
The man was then helped down by two SCDF officers and reunited with his grandson.
SCDF said that it responded to an incident at 2.10pm on Tuesday at Block 109 Bishan Street 12, and that a man was assisted to safety from a walkway shelter by SCDF officers using a ladder.
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