Playful ghost haunts Tan.
Sunday Times Staff Reporter.
Thirty-six-year-old Tan Boon Chong, owner of a Singapore motor tyre repair shop in Anson Road, is a harassed man – a poltergeist is worrying his family. At ten o’clock yesterday morning parangs waltzed through the air, beer bottles jumped from the floor onto the dining table, a window shutter moved four feet, stones and sand fell from nowhere. For three hours the daily routine of Tan’s shop was broken. Then, as suddenly, order was restored.
Tan told the Sunday Times: “The hantu began worrying us on Mar. 8. My four employees and myself were dining at about 8.30 p.m. when a stone hit the table and sand was thrown onto the food. We thought that somebody was playing a joke. Then two bottles of beer on the floor made their own way to the table. That convinced us that something was really wrong.”
Tan’s playful ghost continued his tricks for the next three days before Tan decided that it was time to move his three children and wife out of the shop. All through the four days the poltergeist left the business portion of the shop alone, concentrating only on the living quarters. As soon as Tan’s family moved out, the poltergeist stopped its tricks. For the next two weeks life was quiet at the shop. Tan’s family moved back towards the end of the month. Four days later, things began to stir. The poltergeist had come back but this time two of Tan’s children, three-year-old Ah Mui and two-year-old Min Siong, had stones hurled at them. They received cuts on their heads. Still Tan would not give in. He and his family stayed on until yesterday, when things grew too hot for them.
Tan’s family is now staying with his wife’s mother and Tan hopes that the “hantu” will stop annoying him. “If not,” Tan said with a grim smile, “I am going to get a medium and chase him out.”
The Straits Times, 8th April 1951.
Tan (Haunted by Ghost) is Harassed by People.
Standard Staff Reporter.
About the most harassed man in Singapore today is the Chinese proprietor of a tyre repair shop in Anson Road. Hundreds of people have called on him within the last two days to get first-hand account of the ghost haunting the premises. The proprietor Mr Tan Boon Chong was forced to close his shop yesterday in the face of the persistent crowd. A Standard Reporter found Mr Tan hiding in a room. He regretted more than ever at having let out the story of the ghost.
The family, he said, had quietly stood the pranks of the ghost since March 8. They left the premises for a fortnight when the ghost for three consecutive days played havoc. The havoc: Beer bottles lying on the floor would suddenly fly and land onto the dining table where the family were eating and sand and stones would come from nowhere and land in the food. For some time afterwards the ghost left the shop premises alone and instead played around in the living rooms where gunnysacks would come floating on to the beds.
The ghost had been quiet the last fortnight. It showed up again two days ago. Latest stunts of the ghosts included throwing knives, beer bottles and stones into the kitchen. To appease the ghost Tan’s family have kept candles burning in the house throughout the day. They have also placed offerings of chicken and pork on a table where the family would pray for protection.
Up to late evening yesterday crowds of forty to fifty people were seen outside the house. Practically all of them were anxiously waiting for the ghost to start up something. The main door of the house was kept locked against the curious crowd.
To counter the pranks of the ghost, which has been haunting his house, Tan has this altar prominently displayed in the shop. The two candles on the table have remained lighted since the ghost started troubling the house. – Standard Photo.
Singapore Standard, 9th April 1951.
Poltergeist didn’t care for detective.
A detective out to lay the ghost at a tyre shop in Anson Road went away red of face and hot about the neck. In spite of his presence, stones continued to fly into the interior of the shop and landed on the table. Although there were many people in the house at the time, none of them could tell where the stones came from.
“The stones must have come from the direction of that clock,” said the proprietor of the shop, Mr Tan Boon Chong pointing to an electric clock set on the face of the wall. He and his family believe that a poltergeist is at work. Stones first began to land in the house on March 8 and continued for four days. Then on April 5, the poltergeist, he said, went to work again. One of his sons, Siok Hwa, was hit on the head by stones the size of potatoes. Although the skin was abraded Mr Tan said, there was no bleeding. No one else was touched although at one period, over 20 people were in the room when stones began to fall. The stones themselves were just ordinary brick and mortar. When asked to show some of the stones, Mr Tan said that his wife threw them into the drain behind the house. The stones were still there.
But since then, Mr Tan and his household has erected an altar to pacify the poltergeist and there has been no disturbances for the past two days. “I hope he’s gone for good,” Mr Tan said, and although we were alone, he spoke in a whisper.
Singapore Standard, 10th April 1951.
Anson Road Ghost Is Now Lying Low.
Standard Staff Reporter.
The ghost which has been haunting a tyre repair shop in Anson Road is lying low. Mr Tan Boon Chong, proprietor of the shop, has settled to a normal life again. “Do you think he dares to defy the altar,” he said yesterday, pointing to the framed picture of a Chinese deity and two lighted candles on the table which he had put up to drive away the ghost. He said that there were no more incidents of throwing of bottles, knives flying round the kitchen or sand being thrown into food since he put up the altar. To defy the hantu Mr Tan said he had more men sleeping in his shop every night.
Singapore Standard, 13th April 1951.
He burns joss sticks to placate ghost.
A ghost which used to throw knives and beer bottles in a tyre repair shop in Anson Road, Singapore, has now been laid. The manager of the shop, Mr Tan Boon Chong, told the Free Press yesterday that he, however, still burnt joss sticks to placate the ghost. Mr Tan’s two children had stones flung at them. The ghost also used to throw sand into the food.
The Singapore Free Press, 30th December 1952.