Carjacked near Tropicana

25/8/13

posted by Leeyiung Chou

After putting a ten-dollar bill into my wallet, i grabbed my groceries and walked towards my car. It was a Sunday afternoon (to be exact, Aug 24, around 1pm), shoppers from the neighbourhood gather here to run their weekly errands. The popularity of the grocery store (initials: JG, near tropicana golf club) could be seen from the number of cars parked in front of it. Some customers including me had to leave our cars by the curb below the slope because the designated parking lots were occupied.

I opened the passenger's car door and before I could chuck anything into the car, someone held both of my arms. I immediately turned around and asked " buat apa?" or what do you want. It was a fairly plump Malay fellow in his 30s who asked me to pay him money. "for what?" i asked. Another male, Indian, dressed up smartly with a white long sleeved shirt and a pair of black pants came walking towards us while holding a walkie talkie. He said "you parking sini perlu bayar!" if you parked your car here, you have to pay us. It did not make any sense to me because every other time I parked my car there, i never had to pay any money to anyone and the malay fellow was still grabbing my arm. And then I had the notion that he was trying to push me into the car.

Within a split second of thought, I shouted help repeatedly at the top of my lungs. It was the freakiest moment of my life. While resisting and doing anything I could to stop them from pushing me into the car including punching the fat guy in front of me, one of them grabbed my neck. While the fight was going on, I heard people shouting and cars honking (thanks people!). Before the other shoppers could run over and help, the robbers cum potential kidnappers snatched the car key, pushed me away and quickly hopped into the car. And then I saw one of them ignited the engine. Subconsciously, I thought I should stop them from getting away and so I got hold of the car door firmly and prayed that someone could do something, anything. But it was just a meager effort. Three big-sized fellows escaped with my car.

It was a great relief that I was not abducted and that I only got bruises and no major injuries. Before they got away, I noticed there was a light green colored car that was parked right behind my car which disappeared after the whole episode of car snatching incident. I also noticed that this gang of people did not even bother to cover their face. It's either because they did not want to raise any suspicions or they did not expect me to have escaped the attempted kidnapping. It was a well planned out, near perfect activity!

After this incident, I realized that you are on your own when things like this happen to you, many people would just stand there and stare, only a few good samaritans would actually help you even if they do not know you. Before you approach your car, remember to look around and be alert of any suspicious people lurking around. Things like this can happen anywhere, anytime of the day and to anyone. It's very important to stay calm and come up with the best solution using the resources around you. And most importantly, learn some self defense arts, trust me, your limbs could be your only weapons in this kind of situations.