This
was how it began. It was around 11:15pm on Monday, 25th June and my
girl friends and I just finished watching the animated film “Brave” at
Cineleisure at The Curve. As we went down the escalator, one of them
named Carol said “Jo, you should teman Dawn back to her car and she can
drop you back.” I, being my usual stubborn self, waved them off, saying,
“Aiyo no need lah, I’ll be fine, you guys carry on.”
And when Carol insisted, it struck me that we were in The Curve (where
many crimes have been happening lately), and I immediately agreed with
her.
So
Joanne and I walked through the sliding glass doors out of Cineleisure,
down the steps and took a right where the fountain was. The aim was to
cross the street and get back to Ikano Power Centre, where my car was
parked. This alleyway that we had to walk past wasn’t dark and it hardly
looked menacing. But it was deserted; there was not a soul in sight.
Nevertheless, we thought nothing of it, as neither of us felt anything
amiss. So we walked and I began checking my phone messages and replying
to them one by one.
As
we reached the grass area where the Volkswagen showroom was, a skinny
guy that seemed to be in his early 20s, quietly sneaked up from behind
us. He waited for the right moment to attack, the moment Joanne had her
head turned away from me. He roughly grabbed the strap of my handbag
that was on my right shoulder, almost snatching it away. I screamed on
top of my lungs and yanked my handbag back in the nick of time.
The
impact from his pull made me fall on my knees to the grass and my phone
that I was fiddling with fell on the ground too, together with my
handbag. I was still screaming and yelled “HOI!” to the guy,
but he continued to run towards the edge of the little roundabout and
joined his friend, who was waiting for him on a motorcycle. They quickly
sped off towards the Kota Damansara area. Unfortunately, I didn’t get
to see their faces, nor the registration number on their motorcycle.
I
got up and checked my belongings to see if all was in order. Joanne
pulled me to the side, so that we can get away from that place, just in
case those snatch thieves came back. None of the security guards at The
Curve came to us, despite my screams. They were obviously nowhere near
where the incident took place.
Even
a middle-aged man who drove past the moment I fell, stopped at the side
of the road to see if everything was okay, which was very nice of him.
He looked at us curiously and I explained what happened. He said “Tu la, tadi saya nampak ada orang cuba ragut.” (Yes, earlier I saw someone trying to snatch something away”) And we told him to just be wary and mindful.
We
walked next door to Royale Bintang Damansara Hotel and asked the
security guard on duty, if there was a safe, indoor passageway that we
could use to access the carpark at Ikano. He seemed to be a foreigner
and had trouble speaking and understanding both English and Malay,
pointing to the direction of Ikano. After three attempts of asking, we
gave up and proceeded to cross the street.
As
we crossed and headed towards the ramp down to the basement parking
area, we saw three men suspiciously walking towards our direction and
proceeded to also walk down the ramp, just in front of us. Joanne and I
seemed to read each other’s minds when we said, “Yeah let’s forget this
and go through the main entrance” and turned back, walking up to where
the drop off area was, by the sliding glass doors.
At
last, we saw a security guard who was sitting at the entrance of Ikano
Power Centre, doing nothing. I proceeded to politely ask him if he would
open a small door for us to enter to access the P2 carpark. He refused,
stating gruffly that the mall is already closed, “Tak boleh buka pintu, semua sudah tutup. Kalau you mahu masuk parking, you kena turun ikut jalan kereta”
(“We cannot open any of the doors, all are closed already. If you want
to enter the parking area, you need to go down the ramp like how all the
cars enter”), pointing directly to the ramps which we just walked away
from.
Joanne and I made several more attempts before Joanne added, “Kalau encik tak nak buka pintu, tak apa. Boleh tak encik teman kita sampai ke kereta?”
(“Sir, if you don’t want to open the doors, it’s okay. But can you at
least walk us to our car?”) The security guard gave me a bored and
disgruntled look, and it became clear to us that we were a nuisance to
his otherwise very peaceful and serene night.
Then I finally said “Encik, mintak tolong, saya baru hampir kena ragut kat depan sana tadi. Please please please tolong kami.”
(“Sir, please help us. I almost got robbed by a snatch thief and it
happened right where you’re asking us to walk to. Please please please
help us.”)
More
disgruntled looks from the guard. He then slowly took out his
walkie-talkie and started speaking in a foreign language to another
guard, and then agreed to walk us to the carpark. As we walked down the
ramp, he was trailing far behind us and we had to slow down several
times so that he could keep up. We were walking at a normal pace.
After about 200 metres, he stopped and said, "Okay, you go now."
We
stopped on our tracks and were like, "Huh?? Can you just follow us to
my car??" and he said "You go", told us that there would be another
security guard around the bend to walk us directly to my car. We thanked
him and proceeded further down. When we reached the bend, to our
disappointment, there was nobody there. Although the car park was
brightly lit, there were no security guards in sight as what the guard
promised and there were only 5 cars parked in the vast space, within our
range of sight. I proceeded quickly into my car while Joanne paid the
parking ticket a few yards away. We then sped off from there to make a
police report.
I'm
not hurt, nor was anything taken. And for that, I'm super blessed and I
thank my lucky stars. My hands were very shaky, yet I willed myself to
drive properly to the police station at Damansara Utama, where the
officers were nice and helpful. Even when I was drawing the map to
explain where I was, my hands kept shaking. But I’m glad that it only
came to that.
Things
could have been much worse. The snatch thief could have been armed. He
could have covered my nose and mouth with chloroform, or used a tazer
gun against me. There could have been two or three, or ten of them. They
could have waited until we got to our cars and robbed us there. Or they
could have easily brought more of their friends to come back for us, as
we were still walking by the street, wasting our time talking to those
so-called “security guards”. The possibilities are endless.
You
would think that despite the recent series of unfortunate incidents in
shopping malls throughout the Klang Valley that at least one mall would
step up to launch a safety awareness campaign and to take steps to raise
their security levels. Not one has been doing it.
Thanks
to my friends; Carol Leong for insisting that Joanne Ho-Lee walks me
back to my car and thanks to Joanne for being there with me throughout
the entire ordeal and at the police station. Now I’m wary of leaving the
house and as I drove home and saw families crossing the streets, I felt
the urge of winding down my car window to tell them to be careful while
they walk.
Thanks
also to all my family members, close friends, acquaintances,
colleagues, Twitter and Facebook friends and followers who have shown so
much concern and care for my wellbeing. I will remember each and every
one of the kind words on the phone, sms and sent online.
Hugs,
Dawn Jeremiah
Article from facebook
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