At the mercy of thieves

From the Sunday Star
Sunday October 19, 2008

By RASHVINJEET S.BEDI


Sunday Star, in the course of doing a story on the rising crime rate, didn’t have far to go in search of victims. Many Star employees have had chilling encounters with snatch thieves and burglars.

AS a reporter, there have been times when it has been quite tough for me to find the right people to interview for stories. When it came to the subject of crime, however, almost everyone I approached knew someone who was a victim, if they were not one themselves. No wonder someone once remarked that crime pays for reporters. In my office alone, at least three of my colleagues or their family members were victims of crime in the past week alone, whether it’s a house break-in or a snatch theft.

In the past few years, the latter has gained a lot of media coverage because a number of people have died as a result of snatch-thefts.

Female victims

The classic tale of snatch-theft is that of the female victim who is attacked from behind by two people on a motorcycle. This was exactly what happened to my colleague Renita whose mobile phone was snatched from her while she was talking by the side of the road.

Renita was shocked and shouted after the thieves, but the pillion rider turned back and had the cheek to call her bodoh (stupid). Fortunately, they missed her handbag, which was on the other shoulder, and she was not injured.

She made a police report and she says the police personnel were helpful although they said it would be almost impossible to recover her phone, which was only two months’ old at the time.
“I have decided never to use an expensive phone again, and nowadays I only use it in my car,” she says.

A colleague’s wife, C. S. Tan, was not as lucky to escape injuries. She had just come out of a bank in Bandar Puteri Puchong at about 1.45pm after conducting some company work and was walking towards her friend’s car. The next thing you know she was hit on her head from behind.
“When I woke up, I was in the hospital,” she says.

She lost her handbag which contained her handphone, keys, credit cards, driving licence, identity card, office keys and ATM cards. “If they want to take money, they should go ahead and take it. Just don’t hurt others,” says Tan who had to have two stitches. Police told her there were many cases in the area but hers was the first one carried out in daylight. “Now, whenever I hear a motorbike, I feel jittery,” she says.

Even the elderly are not spared, as Ching, another colleague, relates the tale of her mother Madam Tan, 70, who was on her way to meet friends after a morning walk, a daily routine for many years.

“She was walking back after getting the newspaper when a car whisked past her and suddenly stopped. My mother knew the occupants were up to no good and started turning back,” relates Ching. The car, however, was reversed quickly, knocking Madam Tan to the ground with an open back door. The assailants pulled off her gold chain and drove away.

Madam Tan, who was only carrying a small purse, sustained cuts and bled from her head. Fortunately, a group of youngsters helped her to a clinic and contacted her family. “My mother does not dare to go out alone anymore,” says Ching.

And it seems that people would go to any lengths or use any methods to rob. About three months ago, my ex-schoolmate Razalee Yahya, 27, was on his way home on his motorbike when another motorcyclist rode by his side. The pillion rider on the other motorbike stuck his hand into the rack in front of Razalee’s bike, grabbing its content.

Fortunately, it was just an old jacket, which the thieves threw on the road.

“I did not realise what was happening until a hand sneaked in. I was shocked,” says Razalee, who almost hit the road divider but was lucky that he managed to regain control of his bike. He didn’t make a police report because he didn’t lose anything, but he believes it would have been a waste of time anyway.

Liz Price from England, a contributor to The Star who has been living in Malaysia for 10 years under the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) Programme, says she has been a victim of beak-ins three times, all in different apartments. She has also been a snatch theft victim twice, the first being in Miri eight years ago, where two men on a motorbike pushed her from behind.

Then, two years ago her bag was snatched outside a shopping centre. Two months later, two men tried to snatch her bag but Price was alert and managed to sidestep them. “They followed me to my car but I managed to get away. They tried to open the (car) door but I had locked it,” she says.

Price is more careful these days. “I don’t carry much cash or anything unnecessary,” says Price, who reckons it is a difficult task to stop these crimes but hopes that police would increase their presence. “It is worse still if they (perpetrators) become violent and use a parang to injure their victims,” she says.

There is no shortage of stories about house break-ins either. Another colleague, Leong Shen-Li, was robbed twice in a space of just over a month. The first break-in occurred during the day. The door and grill were broken, and drawers were all ransacked. Leong says he lost his PC, foreign currency and passport. His wife’s costume jewellery was also taken.

After that, he got five heavy-duty padlocks, which cost RM300, but they did not deter robbers who struck again. In the second incident, Leong had arrived home just before midnight to find the light upstairs on. “I looked at the drawers and they were all open,” he relates.

Leong went to check the back of the house and found the sliding doors damaged, and he believes the robbers were still there when he arrived because his laptop was untouched. “The autogate makes a lot of noise and I was talking on the phone in my car for almost 10 minutes before coming out. I think they ran away because nothing of value was taken,” he says.

This time, he reinforced his gates, fixed an alarm system and got a puppy, in addition to installing new locks and subscribing to the local neighbourhood watch. All these extra measures set him back almost RM5,000. “I didn’t lose much to thieves but lost to others (such as the locksmith),” he quips.

Leong says the police came almost immediately in both cases.

“I got an impression that they were just treating it as a break-in although to their credit they did arrive quickly,” he says. “Statistically, I was just amazed I could be a victim twice in a short time,” he adds.

Yet another colleague, Looi Lai Yee, was robbed on her doorstep after coming back from work at 2am. She drove into her compound and after the auto gate had closed, Looi thought she was “safe and sound” She got down from the car, plonked her handbag on a bench near the main door and was just starting to unlock the grill door when someone jumped over the fence and headed straight for her. She shouted but the intruder coolly and nonchalantly walked past her, grabbed the handbag and ran away.

Looi tried to give chase but slipped and scraped her knee. The episode was over in under 10 seconds, she says. “I never thought I could be so vulnerable in my own home and I had totally let my guard down. Furthermore, I’m so used to coming home at that unearthly hour,” says Looi who adds that her husband stands outside with a baton these days waiting for her.

Looi lost RM800, a new handphone costing RM800 and her car keys. Replacing the latter cost up to RM2,700 and because the auto gate remote was attached to the car key, the frequency of the gate had to be reset at a cost of RM200. In addition, when the robber jumped over the fence he broke the water pipe, which cost RM80 to repair. There were also other costs and the hassle of replacing all the bank cards, identity cards and so on.

“But of all the things that I lost, none was greater than the loss of the sense of security at home,” says Looi.

The cases we hear of or read about are just the tip of the iceberg. Based on the accounts of my colleagues alone, I could go on and on but at this moment I am hoping and praying that I will not be part of that iceberg.

Related stories:
Penangites on guard as crime rate soars
E-mail messages that warn of criminal’s tactics