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It's quite common nowadays to hear about people losing
their hand phones. Some are lost through negligence and
others were stolen either in their homes, cars, buses or
trains. I had the misfortune of losing my hand phone to a
pickpocket in a train and would like to share my experience
with you.
I came back from
Kuala Trengganu on a Sunday, 8th June 2008 by express bus. The
bus stopped at the Putra Bus Terminal and from there I
walked towards the commuter station to take the train to Sg.
Buloh, which is the nearest commuter station to Kota Damansara,
where I lived.
As it was about 6.00 pm then, which was during the rush
hours in Kuala Lumpur, the train was crowded by the time it
arrived at the station. The boarding passengers, including
me, had to push themselves into
the train as the area at the entrance door was so packed
with passengers that it was
almost impossible to go to the center of the coach. I had no
choice but to stand by the door among a packed crowd. The
supposed-to-be cool air coming from the air conditioned coach couldn't reach the place where I was
standing and the stench from the body odours where I was
standing were nothing less than very challenging for my nose. I saw one Chinese guy holding
onto his nose, so it was not that bad for me after all....
When the train stopped at the next station, many
passengers disembarked. I felt the left side of my body
being pushed but thought that was a normal thing to happen
when passengers were in a "rush" to disembark. After the train moved, I
managed to walk towards the center of
the coach to try to get a place to seat. It was cooler here
but all the seats were already taken. Whilst standing, my
instinct told me to reach for my left pocket where my hand phone
was kept. I was also expecting an sms (short message
service) from my
wife in Trengganu. When I tried to reach for it in my left
pocket, the phone wasn't there. I also checked the other
pockets and it was not there either. Suddenly it dawned upon
me that someone had managed to pickpocket my hand phone and
highly likely it happened when I was "pushed" on
the left side when
the train stopped and the passengers disembarked.
Naturally, I was upset (who wouldn't be in such a
situation?). However, I managed to console myself and think
positively. My thoughts then was," How lucky I was that my
wallet was not taken." It was kept in my right pocket. I
also thought, "Luckily it was not an expensive phone." I
paid RM200.00 for it two years ago. My only regret about
losing the phone was that I didn't copy the phone numbers
and therefore it became a great problem for me later on to
try to contact the persons whose names were kept in the
phone. Another consolation was that nowadays we could
get a new sim card with the same number replaced.
I remember a year back when I tried to get my
son's same hand phone number from Digi. At that time Digi
required me to
produce a police report before issuing a new sim card. Likewise, I
thought it would be the same with Celcom. So I lodged a police report
at Kota Damansara Police Station. The policeman who took the
report didn't look happy about it . He probably knew that it
was no longer necessary to produce a police report to get
back the same number.
After I got the report, I went to the Celcom shop at
USJ 10 the next day. After the hassle of getting a place to
park my car, I finally managed to make my way to the Celcom
shop. But what a disappointment to be told by the staff who
attended to me that blocking my phone number was the best
thing she could do. She said to get a new sim card I
had to go to a Celcom shop somewhere else because that shop
did not provide for such a service. I didn't ask her why and
how were the customers to know which Celcom shops provided
which type of service. Not wanting to waste more
time than I already had, I left the
place.
Anyway, soon enough on the morning of 24th June 08 (16
days from the day I lost my phone), I finally managed to
make my way to Taman Tun Dr Ismail, where a Celcom shop was
located. It was very lucky for me that I found a yellow-line
space to park my car. Lucky in the sense that I didn't get
booked by the police for parking on a road with a yellow
line. You see in Malaysia, you are not supposed to park by
the side of a road with yellow lines.
I walked into the shop and told the
lady at the counter that I wanted to get a new sim card to
replace the stolen one. She gave me a form to fill in
my name, IC number, the phone number and then signed it. I
passed the form back to her and she gave me a queue number,
saying that I had to pay RM5.00 for the replacement. When I
asked her, "Don't you want a copy of the Police Report?" She
said, "No."
Believe me, if I had known that a police report was not
necessary, I would have got my new sim card earlier and not
two weeks later. Anyway, there are four (4) lessons (which I
can think of) to be
learnt from my experience: -
1. Always be careful when you are in a crowded place.
Make sure that your hand phone or wallet are kept safely, if
possible in a fully-buttoned pocket. But you have to make
sure you can open the button and take out your phone before
the caller ring stops. Don't
think that it won't happen to you, it happened to me and it
can happen to you too,
especially if you look like that one not used to taking a
bus, train or public transport.
2. Always have the phone numbers in your hand phone
copied at another place - your note book or computer. Until
today, I am still having problems trying to contact certain
people :-). Whenever I receive an sms without the names but
just phone numbers, I had to request for her/his identity
before I reply :-)
3. In the case of Celcom, no police report was
necessary. So, to save time, please check first whether you
need to produce a police report.
4. Before you waste your trip to a telco's shop, like I
wasted mine going to the "wrong" Celcom shop, check first
whether that branch where you intended to go, also provided
the service of replacing a new sim card.
5. If you have a cheap spare phone, better bring it
along with you if you are going to find yourself in a
crowded place. If you have to lose your hand phone, make
sure you lost a cheap one that would be almost of no value to the
thief.
Hey, I can think of 5 lessons and not 4 :-)
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