The 17-year-old girl was seconds away from home when she was robbed and groped by a man in the elevator. Hoping that the man could be identified by the CCTV footage from the camera installed in the lift, her father was angry that it was just a casing.

The incident happened at around 12.20am on Saturday (Jun 16) at a block in Woodlands Drive. The girl's assailant was described as well-built and about 1.7m tall. He is also dark-skinned.

According to a report in The New Paper, the girl was waiting for her lift when she saw a man walking quickly at the opposite block. As she was about to enter the lift, she heard heavy panting and quick footsteps coming from behind her. She ran into the lift and punched 2 for her floor but it was too late.

The man wrapped his right arm around her neck and covered her mouth with his left hand when she started screaming. He closed the lift doors at her floor and wrapped his arm tighter around her, which made it difficult for her to breathe and fall down.

He took her handbag which contained her iPhone, a wallet that had about $10 and her ez-link card. Then groped her right breast with his left hand which made her cry. He then released her on the seventh floor as promised, but she got a good look at his face.

Borrowing a phone from a man at a void deck, the girl called the police who searched the area for over two hours but to no avail. They were also later informed that the CCTV in the lift was a dummy. However, the CCTV at the lift lobby was working and they would hand the footage to the police, the town council told the paper. The dummy camera would also be installed with an actual one.

Wrote STOMPer Jin:

"Poor girl! Now she probably has a phobia of lifts and strangers...

"12.20am is not really very late, and usually there will be residents around the area, which should still be brightly lit.

"Luckily she escaped unharmed from the ordeal. Maybe he was just a poor man desperate to eat or desperate to touch a girl...who knows.

"I hope the police can review the footage at the lift lobby (at least they have that!) and quickly apprehend the man.

"It is wrong to instill in the residents that there is a false sense of security with dummy CCTVs.

"On the other hand, I wish they would install a CCTV in my lift so they can catch those who constantly litter and urinate in the lift."