Thieves on the prowl

My friend Siew Suan had her bag stolen yesterday. =(

It all happened when I was walking out of the uni library, about to rush off to teach tuition to a family friend. I saw Siew Suan sitting near the entrance of the library on my way out, and so I hurriedly said a 'Hi' and 'Bye'. But just as I was about to turn my head and walk away, I noticed the sad look on her face. Her eyes were somewhat teary.

My instinct was to mind my own business, and rush off in case I was stuck in peak-hour traffic and was late for tuition.

I stopped and asked if she was ok instead.

BOY was I glad I followed my conscience. She replied with a vigorous shake of her head. And so I asked her story.

"I just came back from my rural clinical placement, and decided that I didn't want to stay home alone on a friday night, so came over to the library to study for a bit. I was barely here for 5 minutes, I put my bag down on the floor in between my legs, and a few minutes later when I reached down to grab my PDA it was missing!!"

"And then I told security, and asked if they could ring my mobile phone so I could locate it, and they didn't seem to care! It was only when I broke down and cried did they start getting off their a**ses....and meanwhile I am sitting here looking at all these people leaving the library with my bag and all my stuff! And I just bought a RM3000 PDA too!! And my house keys, my wallet, credit card, bank card etc etc.... *sobS*..."

I had no idea how to respond. Instinctively I wanted to reassure her and say she's not alone, that many of us have gone through similar bad experiences, that I myself have been robbed at knifepoint, that.....

Stuff instinct. Silence was golden. Wanted to give her a hug, but felt I wasn't a close enough friend of hers for it to be appropriate....

So I decided to cancel my tuition and help her til she was calm.

I found out that she was definitely not the only victim. Hers was the 6th case, there was a 7th 5 minutes after her, and an 8th 10 minutes after the 7th.

Zzzzzz at the security in the library.

I also found out that there were only 2 security guards, and they explained they were working their heads off, and the chief guard even had the guts to put the blame on the victims.

"Next time just keep your belongings close to you. We're not responsible for your losses, you are, and you need to keep them close."

I tried to argue my point.

"With all due respect, how was my friend supposed to keep her bag any closer when it was stolen in between her legs? "

"Keep it on your body"...

WTF man. Talk about avoiding responsiblity. He DID have a point though. But I just hated the way he seemed to be reluctant to address the glaring in adequacies of their security system. 8 cases in a day!?!?

Anyway, I offered to drive Siew Suan home. But as we were walking past the science library where the 8th victim had her stuff, she suddenly decided to check out the bins near the library. And surely enough, her bag was in the bin!! (OMG at women's intuition). In the end she recovered most of her stuff, only lost money and her PDA. The thieves were even nice enough to leave her house keys, credit card etc intact. (Wonder if there is such a thing as thieving etiquette?? "I only steal, i don't commit fraud"??!?)

I suppose it was a bit of a consolation for SS to have recovered her bag+items. She told her bike recently got stolen too while she was away for her rural placements.

Later I offered to shout her dinner as she didn't have cash on her. We called one of her best friends, SeeSiong, and met up with him over dinner. Its amazing what a good meal does to one's mood! She was much more calm and stable after dinner, so i left her with SeeSiong, and went home...

Eventful day...

Please be careful of thieves/snatch thieves ok everyone.