Mind your Handbag

Today I passed by what I call "the scene of the crime". It was here that I was robbed of my handbag about two months ago.

To cut a long story short, it happened on a Saturday evening. One of two smart thieves-on-a-bike jumped into the back of my car as I was getting in, snatched my handbag from the passenger seat and roared off with it. It happened very quickly and calling for help would have been of no use. In addition, they pulled up the handbrake of my car to its furthest, probably to prevent me from chasing them!

After the initial shock, I tried to release the handbrake but couldn't. Finally, I walked home, which fortunately was a stone's throw away. Once there, I spent a frantic evening calling my bank and credit card companies to alert them on the theft. I then called a taxi to take me to the nearest police station. On the way, we stopped at our car and the taxi man was kind enough to help me release the handbrake. He was a perfect Sherlock Holmes. He made sure he used a handkerchief so that he would not smudge the fingerprints on the brake! I thanked him for being so careful and on the way to the station, he gave me several tips on how to avoid future incidences of this nature. Very helpful man.

On arrival at the police station, I duly made my report. After about twenty minutes there, the door of the station flew open and a middle aged woman burst in. In ringing tones, she said that she had been robbed of her handbag as she was leaving a shopping complex. What upset her most was the loss of her expensive hand phone and punch card. She was still dictating the details of her case to the police officer on duty when I left. Two cases for an otherwise dull evening, I thought to myself.

I had dinner at about 8.30 p.m. and went to bed shortly. As I lay there, I tried to remember what else was in my handbag ...i.c., driving licence, appointment cards, membership cards, stamps.....I fell asleep before I could recall everything.

I have read of cases where some "kind" snatch thieves had returned by post the i.c. and driving licence of the persons they had robbed. This did not happen in my case! Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that people like that would take the trouble of finding an envelope, going to the post office and buying a stamp! How I wish we have a real life Superman or Wonder Woman to round up all the "baddies" and deposit them in some place far, far away where they can cause no harm to anyone!

Anyway, I am all the wiser after this incident. Someone asked me why didn't the good Lord protect me? I think he did; it could have been worse. The bad guys could have held me up as well and robbed me of the jewellery I was wearing or maybe even stolen my car! I dare not think further. I was not harmed and that's a lot to thank the good Lord for. But my friend was skeptical, being the atheist that he is. I left him to his doubts.