'I go to his house and stab him': Man jailed after threatening boss of company that repossessed his car
Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Oct 31, 2025
A property agent, whose car was repossessed and towed away by a finance company after he defaulted on payments, contacted the police as he wanted to get back some work-related documents from the vehicle.
Vernon Yang Zhi Xian, 30, made two calls to the authorities and became angry, telling the personnel attending to him that he would stab the boss of Auto Lease.
On Oct 31, the Singaporean was sentenced to six weeks' jail after he pleaded guilty to three charges, including two counts of harassment.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Xavier Tan said Yang did not actually intend to stab the boss.
The DPP said that Yang was at a Ghim Moh multistorey carpark shortly before 10.30am on Oct 22, 2024 when he contacted the Singapore Police Force's found and unclaimed property office.
A woman, identified in court documents as V1, took his call. He told her that he wanted to check if anybody had returned his belongings.
Yang became angry when she asked for a report number, and replied: "You expect me to investigate the case?"
V1 tried to calm him, but an agitated Yang then told her: "You don't call me back by today, I will... bring (a knife and) go and kill people... Now I go to (the boss') house and stab him!"
Yang hung up the phone soon after.
Minutes later, he went to a nearby coffeeshop and called the Jurong Police Division.
A police officer, V2, answered the call, and Yang said that he wanted to speak with "IO Banson".
Confused, V2 asked for a report number.
An angry Yang replied: "Within 15 minutes, I can reach the (man's) house and stab him. If I never find him there, I will go to his workplace, I will stab him."
Yang hung up, but around 10.45am, he called Auto Lease's office and spoke to one of its employees, V3.
The offender told V3 to return his items from the repossessed car.
He also told the employee that if his items were not returned to him by 2pm, he would take a knife to the company's office and "chop someone".
He hung up the phone, and an alarmed V3 alerted the police.
An investigation officer later contacted Yang, and convinced him to go to Bukit Timah Shopping Centre for a meeting at around 2pm. Officers arrested him when he arrived.
On Oct 31, the court heard that Yang will be appealing against his sentence, and his bail was set at $15,000.
