Video of ‘spitting’ seller goes viral

PETALING JAYA: Durian lovers are up in arms when a video of a seller seen spitting on the fruit made its rounds online.

The two-minute video, recorded from a distance, showed a man at a durian stall, believed to be in Sri Gombak in Kuala Lumpur, wrapping individual packets of the fruit which he placed on his lap.

However, before he covers each packet with cling-wrap, he brings the packet to his face briefly before putting the packet down.

The video has been shared extensively on Whatsapp and Facebook since Wednesday night.

A video had also surfaced online showing what appears to be another person confronting and berating the durian seller.

Did he spit on the durians or was he blowing away dust from the fruit that he was wrapping? Or maybe he was “casting a spell” to improve his sales?

When asked on The Star Online’s Facebook page yesterday what the man was doing, comments were split.

Noonsod Rawaulam said the man was spitting “maybe to improve his sales”.

“I don’t think he did it out of spite or anger, maybe he was reciting mantra to improve his sales and be popular. At least now he is well known,” he said.

Omar Idris said there was no reason for the seller to spit on the durians.

“The problem is we always tend to look at the negative before even finding the truth,” he said.

Other commentators were less forgiving.

Selvin Thor called on authorities to punish the man for selling “unhygienic durians”.

For Joanne Tan, penalties should be im­posed on the man and his employer.

“This type of malice should not be taken lightly,” said Tan.

Gombak OCPD Asst Comm Ali Ahmad told The Star Online that the police would take action if it was determined that the man did something wrong.

Police patrol cars were sent to the durian vendor’s stall on Wednesday night but he was not there.

The stall is said to have remained closed yesterday.

“We have to determine what actually happened and will look into the matter from all angles. We need to determine whether he was ac­­tually spitting,” said ACP Ali.

He confirmed that the stall workers were Indonesian, as per claims on social media.