Bad ending for my 23rd year

My 24th birthday was just days before they happened.

Nov 14, 2008 - I woke up early as usual for work and was looking forward to finish my work and high with Friday night fever. By 6.45am, I was walking down the stairs, wore my shoe and headed to my SLK (have been driving my sis's SLKenari recently but not today as her car needed a service). So the usual habitual action...1st pressed the car alarm, opened the car door on the driver seat, swung over my laptop from my back to the seat next to my seat, bent my legs and got up the car sideway...And right at this moment, the moment which I was half into the car, I just saw 4 Malay men on 2 motorcycles speeding in my direction and the next moment I saw, 2 guys hopped down from the motors.

I sensed something was wrong and my natural reflex kicked off. 1^st strike on my mind, ‘they are coming for me…dangerous!’. Shouted out very very very loud and high pitch. I did consider speeding off but...what could I do? My sister was still out, locking our house door....so the speeding off was not possible at that time. The 2 men, 1 ran up to me while the other headed to the door next to the driver seat, opened it and grabbed my laptop...

At the same time the guy that came to me, tried to pull me out of my car...and again...my reflex system kicked off...I resisted, trying to swing his hand off my arm. He raised his leg and gave me few kicks...I returned some kicks as well...until that kick, that very one kick that hit me on my chest, chin and lips. Suddenly, the 2^nd strike...’I must give up my SLK…nothing matters now.’ Right away I shouted out loud to him "Saya bagi! Saya bagi!", trying to leave my car asap....forcing myself forward and surrendering my car to him....but I guessed he was panic as well....1st he wanted the car but I refused, then suddenly I gave up...I tried to get out of my car and that stupid fella tried to push me back into the car. Then the 3^rd strike, 'I must leave the car or else he ll abduct me along and god knows if I could ever come back and see my family again'. So I used my full force to push him away. After seconds, he finally gave up and turned his back and ran up to his 3 other colonies. Very quickly, he hoped up to his friend’s motor and me still chasing after him.

Meanwhile, my sis was still trying to pull my laptop bag back from the other fella. By then we was like next to each other with the 4 robbers right infront of us…my sis had a tug of war with him and suddenly the one that I have fought with actually wanted to hop off his motor again to help his friend to win my laptop. Then, I got the 4^th strike, ‘there are 4 of them…man…and we 2 girls…’. This time, I shouted again “给他,给他!我不要!给他!” My sister let go my bag and they sped off leaving both my sister and I almost stoned there.

My 5^th strike said “It’s not safe here…run!”. I shouted my sis to run…run back to our car. And we did. I didn’t know how fast we were but it was certainly very fast. We got up our car and immediately locked the door, started the engine and checked them out at my back mirror. Well…you wouldn’t believe…they actually stopped at the end of the junction, and turned and looked at us for a moment.(guess they were thinking of coming back for the car again).

I was about to drive off when my family members came rushing down and the 4 fellas quickly speed off. Spotting my family’s presence, I actually took out my hp from my pocket and dialed 999…yes how stupid was I? 999 from a hp…that was the stupidest action I have in the hold day.

My 1^st shout was so loud until, my mum who was sleeping in the front room on the 2^nd floor was awakened. She woke up and looked out from the windows and saw my sister and I were struggling with 4 guys. She woke my dad and my brothers and rushed down to save us…

After the whole incident, I was all pale and my mind was blur…I just didn’t know what happened and how to deal with them. My emotion then was ...indescribable. I told my family members and we acted very quickly. We cut all my cards transactions. My dad drove me to the Bukit Tengah police station. I didn’t want to describe too much about the situation in PS but seriously I was very nervous and upset and ‘pek chek’ especially when the officer interviewed while puffing his cigarette that he tugged between his fingers while doing his typing with 1 finger on each hand…like the Chinese kungfu “蟷蜋拳”. He reminded me on my birthday after learning my IC no.

Fine…then we were ordered to go to the PS in Bandar Perda to meet another worse Inspector. We was there at 8.15am but was told that the inspector was not back yet. “Inspektor X belum datang lagi. Pergi jogging atau ke kelas…Tahulah…orang atasan selalu nak sihat”…I asked what time he would be back. “Hmm…sebentar lagi…lebih kurang 8.30 kut atau 9.00. Kamu boleh duduk dulu atau pergi ke kafe dan minum dulu”. What? I didn’t go to police station for breakfast.

Fine…he was finally there before 8.30am. I went into his room alone at first…he asked few questions. These was our conversation.

Insp X : “Tahu serial nombor laptop?”

Me : “Tak tahu tapi company I ada. I kena balik dan check dengan company dulu”.

Silence for a moment.

Me : “Jadi, inspector perlukah? Kalau perlu saya boleh check tapi macam mana saya nak bagi inspector and bila?”

Insp X : “Kamu apa pun tak ada. Main main saja! Sekarang ini, sudah dalam soal siasat”

Damn him! He was lucky as I was already in shock at that moment…or else he ll surely kena shoot by me!

After a while when my dad joined us in the room, his attitude and intonation changed…slight better than before.

Else than the shit questions and words used, another shit thing bout the whole investigation was, how it was carried out. 1^st I have a computerized report from Bukit Tengah PS, then in Bandar Perda, it was hand written. Hand written was still ok but worst of all was looking at how he actually wrote it down. His handwriting was so nice and neat…better than many of us girls. And he actually written down every single words….i mean he has this format :

S : Bagaimanakah kejadian itu berlaku and di mana?

J : Ia berlaku di hadapan rumah saya. Saya sedang menaiki kereta….and bla bla bla

Every sentence written must have complied to the grammar rules of Bahasa Melayu…If I were to write such a report, I would not write such a long Q and A. And would surely get do of those Ss and Js, replaced them with a à and spacing. So this was my 2^nd report of the day.

After all those ridiculous reports, I dropped my dad at home and headed back to office. I have called my buddy and manager earlier informing them what had happen to me but I have word lost when talking to them just now. So I went back to office.

On my way to office, I felt my leg shivering….I was still trembling and scared…luckily I called ah Phaik and she has been very helpful and talking to her managed to calm me down.

So at Intel, I reported to security counter about what happened….got a form to fill and went to my manager and colleague and told them what happened. I looked fine in front of them but I knew I was actually not in good shape. I asked my manager for off on that day and the following Monday.

I insisted on completing my urgent HSD…perhaps because I was just so committed to my work…however as I was very blur at that moment, I got my colleague to assist me in completing it. They were very helpful.

Before I left for home, I was interviewed by 1 security officer and 1 investigator. So these were my 3^rd and 4^th questioning sessions excluding those non official ones by colleagues, friends and family members.

I was traumatized for the whole day but luckily I got back up very fast. I managed to rush to JPN to get my replacement IC and JPJ for my license…

15^th Nov, decided to move over to Penang. Went for room hunt and house visit. For at least we need not leave our house so in the dark and can avoid being stalked by those fellas again for now that they knew that I would have a laptop.

16^th Nov, packed up and moved over to Penang.

17^th Nov, packing and cleaning…celebrated my bday with few close friends at Tao...my SLK broke down...problem with the door look system...suprisingly, toggling the door lock actually triggers the engine startup...yes my SLK's up down door lock = turning key from on to start position...so dont be suprise if it happened to your SLK...

18^th Nov, back to office…lots of emails and works to clear…L. And read the email from HK GGA dated 17^th Nov that my initial accommodation booking with them has to be cancelled due to emergency repair needed in their premise…so out of sudden, I have no place to put up in during my trip to HK and Macau in Christmas and New Year…more worries and problems haunting me…

19^th Nov, communicate the accommodation cancellation news to my friends. We tried to make booking online and again we had made mistake…we made booking for Nov instead of Dec. It was Dec in our initial selection but after few next and back clicked, information lost…so we ended up paying much more than our initial budget.

With all these things happening to me in shortly few days, I could not believe that I am in good shape and good luck. I am having bad luck but not that bad after all since, the robber only manage to get my laptop and wallet and few other accessories in it only. And the kicked by the robber of almost double my size didn’t really hurt me badly…perhaps he was too fat to give me a hard kick or perhaps he was wearing a rubber slipper. And lucky for those 2 robbers whom my sister and I have physical contact with were not armed.

So with all these, I hope for a better year and years ahead like in our Chinese believe the good will come after the evil and the principle of karma …Happy Birthday to me!