# Singapore: Armpit Sniffer Gets Caned **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970 "2008-06-15T01:45:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/1 "2008-06-15T01:45:29Z")
18 strokes, plus 14 years in jail. Story [here](http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSIN22130420080613?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews). That’ll teach him. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/2 "2008-06-15T20:57:08Z")
Headline: Sniffer gets sniff, stiff, staff, stiff sentence ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/3 "2008-06-15T23:59:12Z")
Wonder if he enjoyed the strokes? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/4 "2008-06-16T05:42:45Z")
Makes you wonder how they’d punish someone who _liked_ getting caned. Sleep deprivation, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/5 "2008-06-16T05:55:43Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] 18 strokes, plus 14 years in jail. Story [here](http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSIN22130420080613?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews). That’ll teach him. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] It seems from your eyeroll that you feel this is too much? I think you’re oversimplifying this by just saying he is an armpit sniffer. Twenty three women have been touched and sniffed by him in various places. He has a history of drug and sex related offenses. Do you think he just rolled up on them and stuck his nose in their armpit and walked away? I would imagine out of the TWENTY THREE women he did this to he had to grab, hold, subdue, or worse to at least a few of them. Should he be given a slap on the wrist and turned loose to commit more crimes because armpit sniffing is so “silly” and strange? The article you link to gives very little in terms of what was actually done. Perhaps Reuters is being deliberately vague because, after all, you are reading that in the “Oddly Enough” section. I get the impression, from many of your posts, that you fancy yourself to be a champion (and protector, it would seem) of men in your part of the world, but I have to wonder if you expect the courts to allow him to walk around and subject women to his little fetish? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/6 "2008-06-16T06:08:33Z")
Well, he also got 14 years in the pokey. Beating him with a cane on top of that does seem rather pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/7 "2008-06-16T07:16:41Z")
[QUOTE=MEBuckner] Well, he also got 14 years in the pokey. Beating him with a cane on top of that does seem rather pointless. [/QUOTE] Better safe than sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/8 "2008-06-16T10:36:34Z")
More informative report: [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/14/asia/21547893&sec=asia](http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/14/asia/21547893&sec=asia) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/9 "2008-06-16T12:29:25Z")
My first thought on reading the thread title was [“that’s a bit harsh for a cat.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=471838&highlight=armpit) (Which also contains a link back here 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/10 "2008-06-17T02:53:39Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] More informative report: [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/14/asia/21547893&sec=asia](http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/14/asia/21547893&sec=asia) [/QUOTE] Thanks! Still, I would have given him only 10 strokes of the cane myself. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/11 "2008-06-17T03:00:29Z")
[QUOTE=Sleeps With Butterflies] Do you think he just rolled up on them and stuck his nose in their armpit and walked away? I would imagine out of the TWENTY THREE women he did this to he had to grab, hold, subdue, or worse to at least a few of them. Should he be given a slap on the wrist and turned loose to commit more crimes because armpit sniffing is so “silly” and strange? [/QUOTE] Agree. When I first read the link, I thought they meant he sniffed his own armpits…but it seems he assaulted and…um, sniffed, a lot of women. He sounds very disturbed. I can’t really bring myself to feel all that sad. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/12 "2008-06-17T03:22:26Z")
[QUOTE=Sleeps With Butterflies] I get the impression, from many of your posts, that you fancy yourself to be a champion (and protector, it would seem) of men in your part of the world, but I have to wonder if you expect the courts to allow him to walk around and subject women to his little fetish? [/QUOTE] Well, I certainly don’t see myself that way and do not mean to give that impression. But the man in this article is mildly mentally retarded, and caning is not a spanking. It’s a recognized form of torture and a rather brutal one at that. Look up exactly what it involves sometime. Personally, I’d rather see him get some help rather than a brutal beating and being locked away for nearly a generation. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/13 "2008-06-17T04:06:25Z")
Thankfully all the men in whose armpits I put my face are willing participants… ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/14 "2008-06-17T05:06:33Z")
> [@](#): > > He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits and touching them in lifts, staircase landings **and their homes** , the paper said. That’s the key part of the story for me, and 14 years sounds maybe a bit light to me. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/15 "2008-06-17T05:13:34Z")
I just realized, after seeing the thread title up for two days, that it doesn’t say “canned”, it says “caned”. I assumed a guy had armit-sniffing as a job and got fired. I need to pay more attention. On topic- ew. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/16 "2008-06-17T07:41:05Z")
[QUOTE=wolfman] That’s the key part of the story for me, and 14 years sounds maybe a bit light to me. [/QUOTE] The thing is Singapore is not a Third World country. I know it to be a modern, vibrant city-state. They have institutions that deal with the mentally retarded. I’m mystified why the judge would choose the course of action he did rather than make use of these institutions (almost as mystified as I am that anyone would accuse me of condoning the perpetrator’s actions, but then people everywhere can be a bit dotty). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/17 "2008-06-19T18:39:48Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] almost as mystified as I am that anyone would accuse me of condoning the perpetrator’s actions [/QUOTE] and this is why smileys will never replace text. Use your words man! ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/18 "2008-06-19T19:57:33Z")
[QUOTE=chaoticbear] Thankfully all the men in whose armpits I put my face are willing participants… [/QUOTE] 😃 Win. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/19 "2008-06-19T20:03:16Z")
Shouldn’t this thread be in The Pit? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/singapore-armpit-sniffer-gets-caned/452970/20 "2008-06-20T03:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] and this is why smileys will never replace text. Use your words man! [/QUOTE] Smile when you say that, pardner.