Mindless Choping

I recently called into McDonalds at Harbourfront Singapore and despite the outlet being less than half full I noticed people leaving their bags on seats to reserve them.
 
This strange practice is common place in Singapore and is known as chopping.

Considering that the place was pretty empty I cannot fathom out why these people are compelled to do this.

Some people here seem to lack real common sense here because Singapore maybe pretty safe but there is no way I’d leave my bags, phone or other valuables laying around.

Is it any wonder that that some people are easy targets when they travel overseas if they like to leave their items laying around unattended.