Posts Tagged ‘robbery’

A group of us went to Damansara Uptown for lunch yesterday, a new colleague in tow. Boss had suggested we bring her along and she’d offered to drive. She parked along the Maybank row, up near the petrol station end.

When we got back, her car had been broken into. They’d stolen her stereo, her Touch n’ Go card and her office briefcase (no laptop though). They’d left the cash, around RM10, but they’d destroyed her air-conditioning in the process of removing the stereo.

We later found out they’d pried open her bonnet, snipped her car alarm wiring and opened her car door and boot. They even locked the doors after they were done. It was her first day at work. We felt awful.

I commented on how neat the job had been – no smashed windows, everything looked fine from the outside… Then MA pointed out the number of car workshops in the vicinity. Would a worker really do something like this? Is this common in Damansara Uptown?

Related posts:

• Another snatch theft – almost
• The right decision or the safe decision?
• Daylight Thievery
• Wanted: My Handphone Back
• We’re sorry.

Night three in the guest room: I am starting to like it here but I still want my bed back.

An elderly man almost got mugged in front of my office a couple of days ago. He’s like the fourth or fifth snatch theft (almost) victim we’ve had on our street in the last year. Two guys on a motorbike pulled a knife on him and demanded his mobile phone. It was around 7.30pm and the man was just getting out of his car. The would-be robbers fled when the man honked for help.

People are really getting desperate. What you see in the newspapers, depressing as it may be, isn’t the half of it. To pull a knife on an elderly man just for his mobile phone is pathetic. I hate that we don’t feel safe and I hate that there’s nothing we can do about it. Even the cops told us so. Nobody’s going to prosecute these guys and there are simply too many cases for them to process.

Related posts:

• Someone broke into the car!
• The right decision or the safe decision?
• Daylight Thievery
• Wanted: My Handphone Back
• We’re sorry.

It’s been a flat-out week – for some reason, the New Year seems to have brought more traffic jams (as if a whole new bunch of people just started work on 2 January) and more work hours. Even though we’ve recently had two new additions to our team, which technically should mean work is being spread out, right?

No matter, at least there’s cable TV in the office, so this happy camper has been getting her fill of the Aussie Open and American Idol. There’s also a lot, and I mean a lot, of junk food, which us girls have been devouring at freaky speed (the guys in the office just don’t seem to eat).

But that’s not what I mean by thievery.

My colleague got her handbag snatched this week. Right in front of the office! It was about 5.20pm and she was opening her car door to get in when a Malay guy who was standing nearby pretending to talk on the phone snatched her bag, ran to an accomplice on a motorbike, and the two sped away.

We were furious.

I actually don’t know who was more angry – my poor colleague who lost everything including her spare car keys which happened to be in her bag; my bosses who, as a result, have had to change all the locks in the office and run around looking for padlocks because my colleague had copies of the office keys in her bag; or the rest of us, angry for our colleague, for the inconvenience, for the atrosity, for the knowledge that we will never feel safe from now on. We wanted to inflict pain. Or at least, I and a couple others did.

While we satisfied ourselves with fuming and imagining scenes where we would all miraculously be able to beat up a couple of snatch thieves, my boss rang the stolen mobile phone, and it turns out the _____ (insert rude name here) had not turned off the phone! They canceled my boss’ call, and he promptly texted them something along the lines of:

If you fucking come back here again, I’m going to fucking kill you.

Can you believe the punks actually replied? And in English too! Something along the lines of:

I can see you, you can’t see me, you can’t catch me, ha ha ha!

?!!!?? And then they came back the next day! They rode past the office, stopped and stared inside for a while and then ran off before we could call the cops. If they show their faces again and for some reason we don’t quite manage to run them down, we’re bringing in the police.

I should also add that this is the second time they’ve snatched a bag in front of our office, so the entire road is Very Very Angry.

Everyone is now on the watch for two Malay ____ (insert rude name again, feel free to be creative) on a motorbike, one of them dark and small and the other taller and with a moustache, loitering around the area. Unfortunately, that description fits a lot of people.

The day after the incident, another colleague called us from her car at about 6pm.

“I’m in the car already, but there’s a Malay guy on a motorbike with a moustache just hanging around outside the office. He’s on his mobile phone but he doesn’t seem to be doing anything, quite suspicious.”

We promptly sent our boss down to investigate, and five minutes later, he came back.

“It’s the architect from the firm next door.”

Oh.

I think I should invest in a baseball bat.

Related posts:

• Someone broke into the car!
• Another snatch theft – almost
• The right decision or the safe decision?
• Wanted: My Handphone Back
• We’re sorry.

She made headlines on all the major newspapers. She died yesterday. To her family, I don’t know you, but i’m truly sorry. Virtually the whole nation stands with you in your grief and your loss. But that’s no consolation, I know.

After being in a coma for 3 days, the woman who was dragged along the road when her handbag was snatched by robbers on motorcycles, passed away. She left behind her husband and two children, aged 3 and 4.

There was pity, shock, and outrage in my office today. There are too many snatch thieves around. Too many victims. One of our staff was slashed with a parang knife last week when robbers snatched her handbag. She didn’t even have a chance to comply. They didn’t ask, just started slashing. Another had her bag snatched across the road from our office building a few days ago. A colleague’s friend was slashed a while ago, she’s now in physical therapy to regain use of her hand. Another colleague’s friend got a faceful of pepper spray from men who were trying to steal his car, thank God he was wearing glasses. My sister saw an old woman robbed just outside my house by men on motorcycles. And this is in addition to those we see in the newspapers daily.

That woman was the second snatch-thief victim to die. I didn’t even know about the first one. My colleague pretty much summed up general sentiments when he said, “Ini orang, kalau tangkap, mesti hentam cukup-cukup…” (translation: if these people are caught, must whack the crap out of them). Not to undermine the capabilities of both Malaysian and Singaporean police (the thieves were riding a motorcycle with Singaporean number plates apparently), but I’ll bet the culprits are never caught. For the family, it’s too late anyway. A man has lost his wife, two children their mother. And to think all it took was a few seconds.

Makes you think twice about the fragility of life doesn’t it?

Related posts:

• Someone broke into the car!
• Another snatch theft – almost
• The right decision or the safe decision?
• Daylight Thievery
• Wanted: My Handphone Back