Would you give your car keys to a stranger? You just might have to do that, if you wanted to park your car at Valiant Industrial Building at Kallang Pudding Road.

Visitors upon arrival would have to hang the ignition key of their vehicle on a key board at the loading bay of the building, an area left unsecured, before proceeding to the building. No documentation is provided for vehicle owners who have placed their keys there. There is no parking fee charged.

According to Lionel De Souza, 64, who visited the building on Tuesday (6 Feb), only one man guards the key board.

He was left perplexed by this security measure. "I believe that they do this so that if their vehicles causes obstruction, a security officer / car valet can ease the obstruction by removing the obstructing vehicle."

He also noted that during his 30-minute wait at the carpark, the guard had disappeared several times, leaving the key board unmanned.

"When I casually mentioned to him that it was a bad security practice, he retorted that it is the building's management instruction. I asked him what precautions are there in place to prevent anyone from taking out a key of a vehicle to steal
the vehicle or steal property or items from a vehicle. He replied nonchalantly that this has never happened before," said Mr De Souza.

"I told him that if vehicle theft has never happened before, it doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen. He could not answer me," he continued.

Mr De Souza, who runs his own private investigation firm, is no stranger to security issues as such. He is also a retired police officer and is active in the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) where he volunteers as a Crime Prevention Ambassador (CPA). He lends his expertise in crime and security to educate senior citizens and students with talks about crime.