Man, 57, arrested after spitting at & hitting debt collector with golf club

In the video, after the debtor had opened his door, both sides started to taunt each other through the gate.

"Do you dare hit [us]?" one of the collectors asked repeatedly.

At one point, one of them kicked the gate, which prompted the debtor to retrieve a wooden stick from inside his house. He then opened the gate and approached the collectors with the stick behind him. Amid more taunting, he spat at one of the collectors.

According to SG Collectors, the collectors were leaving when the debtor returned with a golf club. He can be seen holding the golf club in the video while both sides exchanged vulgarities.

Shortly after the collectors tried to wrestle the golf club out of the debtor's hand, the footage became shaky and then blacked out while clashes could be heard.

Zaobao reported that Lin was hit in the arm by the golf club, and went aside to call the police. He was later sent to the hospital for stitches.

Another collector, aged 36, had minor injuries.

When contacted by Zaobao, the police confirmed the incident and the two men's injuries, and said that investigations are ongoing.

Alleged previous harassment

In their Facebook post, SG Collectors claimed that the debtor had responded to their employees' messages with vulgar language in an earlier visit.

They added that he had threatened them with "gangster-like" behaviour, for example, saying "you don’t know who I am" in his messages. He would also use "intimidation tactics to pressure [their] staff".

At the same time, the company acknowledged that during the incident on Jul. 10, abusive words were exchanged by both parties, and one of the collectors "responded in the heat of the moment".

They said they will be "taking internal steps to reinforce [their] standards of professionalism", to ensure their staff do not reciprocate when a debtor uses vulgarities or insults.

However, they maintained that "no level of verbal provocation justifies physical violence".

Top images from SG Collectors/Facebook