PETALING JAYA: The “Pokemon soft toy uncle” here in Damansara Uptown whose story went viral on social media on Monday, has managed to sell off all his stock.
He is now buying more toys to meet the sudden high demand.
Known so far only as “Uncle David”, the elderly man found himself burdened with 250 Pokemon soft toys after a customer who ordered them from him failed to show up to collect it.
A netizen who spotted him waiting on the sidewalk of Damansara Uptown, later shared Uncle David’s predicament on Facebook.
Written in Chinese, the post read: “Those who like playing Pokémon Go, don’t waste your time playing that game.
“Come to the HSBC Bank at Uptown PJ and find this uncle who sells Pokémon dolls for RM10 each.”
His story quickly went viral, with many outraged netizens slamming the unthinking customer who had left Uncle David in the lurch.
“If you’re not going to buy, then why would you order this many toys?” a furious netizen commented on Facebook.
Netizens quickly came to Uncle David’s rescue, and by Tuesday the man’s stocks were all sold out.
Murali Subramaniam, a photographer, who spoke to Uncle David today, told FMT that David had to go back to the supplier and get more stock following the incredible response from do-gooders.
“He (Uncle David) explained all his stock for today were sold out, thanks to Facebook and netizens.
“He had to go back to the supplier and get more stock for this afternoon,” Murali said.
According to a report by Malaysian news aggregate website World Of Buzz, Uncle David had been selling toys for the past 15 years, only lately selling his wares in front of the Damansara Uptown HSBC bank due to his crippling leukaemia.
“Before this, I was double my size, very fit. Now I don’t want to think too much (about it) and I’ll leave it in the hands of God,” Uncle David said.
Before his current job selling toys, David led a very different life as a lounge manager.
“In 1985, I was managing a lounge in Ampang Park. There was a man who often came to drink with me, but I didn’t know he was actually targeting me to manage Hollywood East, the biggest discotheque in Southeast Asia in 1988.
“But like all discos, they closed down in 1994 and I went on to manage Jupiter 8, the biggest disco in Labuan,” he said.
There, he said, he met and married a Filipino woman. However, she ran away in 2001, leaving him and his then five-year-old son to fend for themselves.
Especially devastating was how she had taken off with all his savings, which totalled more than RM90,000.
“She was planning to escape with the money all along,” Uncle David said. “That was in Christmas 2001.”
Despite the shock and feelings of despair, Uncle David worked hard to put his son through school. His son later obtained a scholarship to further his studies in the United States.