Today: Jail, fine for man who damaged HDB flat windows by firing ball bearings with air guns he made from scratch

SINGAPORE — After coming across a Nerf brand toy gun in a mall, Lee Keng Hee bought it to study its firing mechanism and make one of his own.

When he failed to do so, he decided to make air guns that were powerful enough to fire steel ball bearings instead of the soft plastic pellets fired by the toy gun.The sheet-metal worker studied tutorials on YouTube and used discarded scrap metal from his workplace to fashion the air guns.He fired at nearby trees and other public housing blocks up to 77m from his Jurong West flat, perfecting his craft over the next few months.But in April last year, he was nabbed when two other flat owners discovered suspicious cracks in their windows and called the police.

Lee, now aged 64, was sentenced to 18 weeks’ jail and a fine of S$2,000 on Wednesday (Dec 16). It was the first prosecution of air gun manufacturing in Singapore.The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge each of manufacturing arms without a licence and committing rash acts that endangered the lives or personal safety of others.