Sunday, May 20, 2018

I Kena Ragut - Snatch Thief Incident near Tropicana Avenue, Petaling Jaya
Beard Brothers Behemoth 3.0 Tropicana Avenue 2018














So it was a lovely Friday, we all have hustled for the past 2 weeks for this huge project and our boss wanted to treat us to a nice dinner at Beard Brothers that evening.
Beard Brothers Behemoth 3.0 Tropicana Avenue Petaling Jaya 2018
The dinner was awesome, with the Behemoth 3.0 meal, we had amazingly juicy, tender beef brisket, big bone to suck on, beef ribs and melt-to-touch chicken. The sides were impressive too, from the leftover's from the beef, cornbread, honey butter biscuit, some mac-n-cheese and honey-butter biscuit. This meal fits 4-6 mouths, depending on the size of each person of course. There were 5 males and 1 female (yours truly) and we barely could finish at the end! 4 cups for the lemonade were included and it's bottomless!

Beard Brothers charcoal grill Tropicana Avenue Petaling Jaya 2018
Beard Brother branded grill - they use real charcoal yaw!
We then headed to the Coffee Bean next door and had 2nd round - cakes, tea and coffee lol. That evening I think I just earned myself 2-3 CORE Jazzercises. Haha.

THE INEVITABLE HAPPENED

So that night, I parked my car at the opposite side of the road, across the entrance to Tropicana Avenue. It was about 10.30pm and I was walking towards my car, alone.
kes ragut snatch thief motorsikal motorcycle tropicana avenue 2018 petaling jaya
I was carrying a brown leather bag pack that had 2 straps, the shape and color similar to this one
I didn't felt it was a dangerous area - the environment and vibe of the area was similar like that of Bangsar or Bangsar South. You don't see dirty sidewalks, broken lights, unscrupulous people loitering about. And right opposite of Tropicana Avenue there was Casa Tropicana condo with university-like people walking by, you see Honda's Volkswagens and BMW's parked outside of Tropicana Avenue. 

So how on earth won't you feel safe?
I was so wrong that night. So wrong. Never have I thought that I would robbed under broad daylight, with many cars passing by and at such an area. I was using just 1 strap of the bag on my right shoulder, walking the same direction as the traffic. So...yeah I was asking for it. 

kes ragut snatch thief motorsikal motorcycle tropicana avenue 2018 petaling jaya
A walk towards my car from Tropicana Avenue turned to be a traumatizing experience
As I crossed the road, coming from Tropicana Avenue's Subway, I walked forward towards my car that was parked by the roadside, just like many other drivers that night. I was walking by the road, not the sidewalk and my bag was conveniently hung on my right shoulder, made it super easy for  2 individuals in a motorcycle to simply ride as close to me from the behind traffic light, grab hold of the bag and go. It happened at this coordinate: 3.136514, 101.594789 on Google Maps. 

It happened so fast, I just crossed the road, Subway for my boo on my hands with my belly full from dinner. I saw green light seconds ago and as I started seeing from my rearview vision that cars had started moving, I heard a motorcycle coming from my behind. It was getting closer and closer and I didn't think much of it.

The next thing I remember was this dark figure that was riding on a motorcycle grabbing hold of my bag (second rider), couldn't see the face or anything at all as the light from the roadside lights was beaming down from the figure's behind. I held up my right arm to resist the bag from going off but unfortunately, the strap broke after a second and there went the motorcycle, away with my stuff, leaving me with just my car keys and my sub on my left hand and clothes that got spilled with Subway's orange juice. This happened in a blink of an eye.

POST-SNATCH THIEF INCIDENT

Cars were moving past me, slowly as usual. My mind was blank for 3 minutes, eyes stared 200 metres upfront, mouth slightly open, my body was frozen in time, feet rooted to the ground. The shock was real.

I looked down on my hands, my sub and car keys on my left hand, my clothes stained with orange juice. Realization came to my brain like Thor's axe on Thanos - tears started flowing down my cheeks. I looked up and looked around me, as if I would see those bastards standing there, waiting for me to catch them. Nope.

I looked further to the traffic ahead of me and started walking. My body was on autopilot, my mind was in disarray, in fear, in shock; fear and helplessness were my only emotions at this point. I just walked for like 20 steps, walked past young arabs that was hanging by some cars and saw this young Chinese guy came up to me and said (God bless him), "Hey, I saw what happened. Are you okay? Do you need to call someone? Would you like some water?" 

It hit me again - DELILAH, YOU JUST GOT ROBBED.
Tears started to flow down again, I looked away from him and mumbled something like "I'm okay. I live nearby, don't need to call anyone. Thank you" We parted ways, and the dude walked back to his Mercedes that was blocking the entrance to exit of Casa Tropicana. "Hah, there are nice people who drives Mercedes apparently" my heart said. Haha.

I walked for another 20 steps and realized, "This is not my parking spot. I have walked passed my car. " I turned around 180 degrees and retreated back. My car was parked like, 5 steps away from the snatch thief spot apparently. Talk about fate.

I turned on my car and started joining the traffic. As I was doing the pedals, my right leg was shaking uncontrollably. Like for real. My brain remembers where my go-to destination was at, but the shock made it like, empty. How to get there, my brain could not process. I felt like a zombie driving a big car. I just followed the road, thinking of nothing. All I knew was I had to drive, and drive out of there.

I exit the highway and had to go thru the Subang toll. I started crying again when I realize my Touch and Go card was in my wallet that was in the stolen bag pack. I went to the farthest left booth and when it was my turn, I told the lady what happened. She said when you exit to TTDI, inform the lady that you came from Subang and you just got robbed. I came to the next toll and did exactly as told. The lady had to make some calls, probably to verify my story.

FINALLY 

I was let go and finally was at TTDI. I dropped by a friend's place, told her what happened and I did what anyone should do when they got robbed:

  1. Called my telco provider and inform them to block my simcard
  2. Called my bank and inform them to kill my ATM and credit cards
Then we went to the Police Station, Damansara branch (Polis Balai Damansara) and made a report. Again for the third time that night, I cried while telling the officer in front of me what happened. 

MY THOUGHTS

This certainly opened my eyes as to how real things can get. It cannot just be in the TV screen, it CAN happen to you or your loved ones. I still am traumatized from this snatch thief incident and I am slowly recovering.

It is now 16 days since the incident and I certainly have learnt a lot from this (Google's Find My Phone, IMEI number, MCMC, sim card tracking, etc) and have gone thru a lot of crap (procedures) to get my stuff on track - replacing my I/C, bank cards, insurance, lost phone tracking and IMEI blocking, etc. I will definitely be posting up on them real soon, subscribe to my feed so you will be notified when I do!

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Salam Ramadhan Mubarak 2018

Salam Ramadhan 2018 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Sabahan blogger

Also, I'd like to wish Happy Fasting and Salam Ramadhan Mubarak to you and all muslims out there.
Tell me something, which awesome bazaars have you gone to?

STAY SAFE.

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Delilah MK
Selangor, Malaysia