The aftermath of being robbed

The act of crime was done within seconds.

I was sitting in my locked car waiting for the gate of my student's house to be open. As it was opening, there was an explosion of glass on the passenger glass. I screamed. Turned my head to the left and saw a hand lifting my handbag out of the car. The person went out of my vision and immediately ran off with his accomplice on their motorbike (which I didn't see but the maid did). I drove into the house. The gate was closed, and I went in to borrow a phone to call Sam.


The ordeal started after that.

First, I had to cancel my handphone, bank card and credit card.

The police report took 3 hours and we had to go to 3 police stations. We went to the one nearest our house first and had to sit through the excruciating slowness of the police officer typing the report into the computer with 2 fingers. We actually did our own report and printed it for the Police, but they needed to type it into their system. When he pressed enter, the whole report disappeared. He retyped it 3 times, and it disappeared 3 times!

So we went to another police station. The 4th entry also disappeared! Luckily the 5th time was successful. Then we had to wait for them to get a reply from whoever it was. We were then told to go to another police station to see an inspector. Luckily, that was the end of the reporting line.

I wasn't sure what I could tell them that wasn't already in the report. Basically, I didn't see the perpetrator. So I knew that it was futile since I couldn't give any descriptions. But it took 3 hours anyway.

Next, I had to replace my hand phone, new bank card and get new SIM card, which didn't activate, and therefore I had to go to Maxis again. It's a good thing, the people at Maxis are efficient. But Sam wanted to register with Maxis for land line and internet. So this week we’ve been to Maxis 4 times!

I still haven't had the time to report to the Embassy about the loss of my I/C and driving license. The car can't be used too because we need to order a new window. Unfortunately, our car being an old Opel, spare parts are hard to find.

Of course, with no license, I am practically legless. I'm going to have to get a Malaysian driving license since I won't be able to replace my Indonesian one any time soon. And that's going to be another ordeal. *Sigh*

Sam told me I have to sit through a 5 hour instructional video. Something about the danger of driving. I'm not looking forward to that. And then of course, go through driving lessons, which I don't think I really need, but have to do anyway.

I'm also going to have to replace a library book that was in my bag. I'm not looking forward to report it to Maria, the librarian. She can be quite sharp. *Shrudder* Especially since the book is an old edition. I wonder if it's still being sold in the bookshop. It's the first book of a series. So it's quite important to get it replaced. And I'm rather upset that I didn't get to finish reading it too!

If sitting in a locked car while entering a house compound is no longer safe, I wonder if any single woman driver is safe from these criminals. This definitely hasn't been a good week.