SINGAPORE: Bicycle-sharing company HelloRide has made a police report after a video of a boy allegedly throwing one of its bicycles around a hard court in Yishun went viral online.

A 46-second video depicting a boy pushing and throwing a HelloRide bicycle into the walls of the court repeatedly was posted by user @weifu_38 on video-sharing platform TikTok on Sunday (Jan 18) and has since gotten more than 31,000 views.

Many viewers criticised the boy’s behaviour for allegedly damaging property and tagged the bicycle-sharing company’s social media account.

In response to queries from CNA, Mr Hayden Choo, managing director of HelloRide Asia, said that the incident took place along Yishun Street 72 and the company has made a police report.

The company has also posted a video on its social media accounts showing a screenshot of the boy in Yishun, captioned in a mock-up headline that reads: "HelloRide offering free unlimited rides for information leading to person-of-interest."

Mr Choo said that the reference to free unlimited rides on HelloRide’s social media channels was intended as "light-hearted humor and banter" and not a formal or legitimate offer.

"HelloRide bicycles are designed to be robust and durable for public use. That said, we are conducting a more detailed inspection to assess whether there is any internal, frame, or structural damage before the bicycle is cleared and returned to service."

For now, there looks to be no visible external damage to the bike.

The bike was retrieved within an hour of the company being alerted to the incident.

HelloRide believes that it has identified the user in the video and provided the relevant user details to the police to assist with investigations.

Earlier this month, an alleged misuse of shared bicycles caught online attention, with photos of multiple HelloRide shared bicycles being stacked along a canal railing in Clementi going viral.

The photos, which were shared on Instagram on Jan 9 by @sgfollowsall, showed several HelloRide bicycles piled in a tangle on top of the railing, while another shared bicycle from another company was strewn underneath the stack of bicycles.

Mr Choo from HelloRide said that this incident took place on Jan 9 near Block 426, Clementi Avenue 3, and the company had similarly made a police report and cleared its bicycles within an hour on the same day.

HelloRide said that such incidents are not common and "extremely rare" and members of the public treat shared bicycles responsibly in almost all cases.

However, when they do occur, the company’s protocol includes securing and retrieving the bicycle promptly, making a police report when appropriate and cooperating fully with the authorities.

"While isolated incidents can occur in any shared public system, we have a strong working relationship with the authorities, which enables swift coordination and response, and we maintain a 100 per cent track record of addressing all incidents swiftly within the day that (such cases) are brought to our attention," Mr Choo said.

He added that the company continues to strengthen its operational processes, including improving the speed of incident detection and quickening on-the-ground response.

"In parallel, we actively educate users and the public on the proper and responsible use of shared bicycles through in-app reminders, on-ground operations and public communications, as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain a safe and orderly shared mobility environment."