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A Lesson Learnt…

It’s one of those things that you hear about, and dismiss as an unfortunate event. The probability of it affecting you is rather slim, and so there’s no need to be so worried about it. The only problem is that regardless of how unlikely something is to happen, there’s still a possibility that it can occur.

I had the somewhat unfortunate experience last night of a grab-and-run while I was waiting at a red light.

Fortunately for me, there was nothing on the passenger seat, and so the would-be thief took off empty-handed. I was also lucky enough that the assailant wasn’t armed or violent.

It all happened extremely quickly — the whole event lasted at most a second. Everything that followed was simply a reaction as there was just no time to think and respond. It’s only after I’ve replayed the entire event over and over again in my mind that I can now make some sort of sense as to what happened…

I was driving along Windsor Rd towards Toongabbie and pulled to a stop at the Windsor Rd/Cumberland Hwy intersection. As the light was about to turn green, I hear my passenger-side door fly open and a thump on the seat. My instant reaction was that someone had just jumped into the seat, but by the time I turned my head around to see what happened, all I could see was some guy bolting away.

As I said, the whole thing lasted at most a second and I was left stationary at a now-green light, cars coming up behind me, and my passenger-side door wide open. The only thing that I could do was to accelerate hard enough so that the door would close by itself (and remember that there’s a speed camera coming up soon).

Now, I’m a person that firmly believes that all negative experiences teach you something about life, profound or not. Maybe it’s just how I deal with things of this nature, but I see no point in feeling sorry for myself. After replaying and analysing what happened, here are some interesting things that may be worth noting.

Locking Car Doors

Perhaps this one is fairly obvious. It’s entirely my own fault for not locking the doors once I get in the car. Yes, I’ve been told that people have had their handbags stolen under almost identical circumstances, but I dismiss those because they occur in rough neighbourhoods. Sure, I’ll lock my car door when driving through potentially unsafe areas, but I never bothered when it’s just your average drive — one that you’ve done hundreds of times before without incident.

So, lesson learnt — I’ll try to make a habit of locking car doors when driving. After all, there’s this famous quote that says:

“Fool me once, shame on …
… shame on you.
*pause*
Uh, fool me — you can’t get fooled again”

And I have every intention of… err… not being “fooled” again. This leads me to the next thing, which is…

“不怕一萬, 只怕萬一”

I’m not sure how many times my mum has said this to me as I was growing up. The phrase translates to mean something like “not afraid of a million, but of the one in a million”, and is a fairly common idiom.

Oft have I shrugged off this phrase every time my mum drills it into my head. I’d dismiss it thinking that she’s just being paranoid, and that I’m pretty safe playing by the numbers.

I guess the numbers catch up with you eventually.

A Well-planned Attack

Well, it wasn’t really an attack, but you can think of it as one. Every time I replay what happened, I tried to think what the guy could have done in order to improve his “position”. To be honest, I can’t really think of anything better. I initially thought it was an act of desperation — maybe he needed money real quick and so just do a quick grab-and-run. Now, I think this was an act with much planning, and probably experience.

Perhaps I’m giving him too much credit, and he may just have fluked the whole situation, but I suspect that this guy is pretty pro at this. Consider the following:

• The entire process was over and done within a second. The movement was fluid — door flies open, grab at seat, run away. All of this before the driver has registered what has happened. No clumsiness whatsoever.
• He timed the attack just as the light was about to turn green, and therefore the driver would likely be looking ahead and getting ready to drive off — not looking around bored. Traffic would also be expecting to move as well, hence pressuring the driver to drive off.
• He approached from the driver’s blind spot. Normally, when I’m stopped at a red light, I’d check to see what the traffic is like behind me. This involves glancing at the rear-view/side mirrors. I’m pretty certain I didn’t see some hooded figure making their way towards my car.

So, my hat goes off to this guy for executing it somewhat flawlessly. But that’s about the extent of my sympathy.

Bag Placement

Unless you happen to be one of those people who always, without fail, locks the car doors upon driving off, there’s a good chance that you’ll be driving around with them unlocked, intentional or not. If that’s the case, where should one place their bags/valuables/etc so as to minimise the chance of it being swiped in a grab-and-run?

The boot (or trunk for you American readers out there) is naturally a good place to stash any expensive items when you’re on the move. The glove box is probably a fairly safe spot for small items. Since any would-be attacker only has a very limited time to carry out a theft, those two places will almost certainly be skipped over. The problem with this is that it’s also fairly inaccessible for you as well (though that’s probably a good thing… since you’re meant to be driving).

[Update: thanks to a number of people for pointing this out -- the boot's not exactly the best place if it can be popped open from the outside...]

The next best place, I think, would probably be the back-seat area. Most people generally put their stuff on the passenger seat, since it’s easily accessible and hence an obvious initial target for a thief. Unless they’re desperate, they would probably skip opening the back seat door and just take off empty-handed.

I guess you could also keep something small, like a handbag, in the driver’s foot area (like, behind/under the legs), but I think that’s fairly dangerous as it may potentially interfere with your driving.

Anyway, I think I’ll be locking my car doors from now on.