| | I was planning on saving the money for future usage and probably a trip to Sarawak to celebrate Gawai with my Iban friend and but in a matter of hours, the money had changed hands.
It was like any other day, nothing much was going on as the campus was quite deserted apart from the occasional car zooming past and the pacing of final year students up and down the campus. I'm supposed to be back home by now but due to some glitch, our class were required to take up Biochemistry because it happens to be prerequisite for another subject next semester. Ex-Diploma students and probably STPM biology students were initially exempted but there were rumours that internal squabbles by non-exempted students led to the removal of the exemption which is why I'm still here. It'll be only 3 weeks, but there'll be 3 tests throughout, it's a touch and go affair.
But ya, that's beside the point of this post. Probably just an intro on why I'm not home yet when other students are happily sleeping at home. As said, the 6th of May, 2009(Wednesday) was like any other day, wasn't expecting much suprises apart from the Champion's League match between Arsenal and Manchester United, in which the latter team won by an aggregrate of 4-1. But that joy lasted for like only... 3 hours?
I was back in my room at about 5am, emptied my pocket's content and placed it all on the table. My eye lids were already very heavy and I slept like a dead log the moment I hit the bed. This is where mistake number 1 comes into the picture. I forgot to lock my bedroom door. I normally make sure it's locked, but not today. It was closed, but not locked.
My hand phone's alarm rang at 7am and I woke up to press the snooze button. It was placed on my wallet but after pressing the button, I kept it in my hands while I continued sleeping. At about 8.30am, my friend passed by my room and woke me up for class. I wasn't sure if he was the one who opened the door but the door was slightly ajar. I locked the door and as I went to the table to get my keys, I noticed my wallet was missing. Thinking it may have dropped off the table, I looked under the table and bed but it wasn't there. I thought it was joke by my friend who woke me up so I tried to call him but later found out he had some problems with the phone. Asking around also proved fruitless. No one was playing a joke on me and this was getting rather serious. It was only a few hours later after discovering that my wallet was missing, that I called CIMB to enquire about any transactions. I was worried that if the wallet indeed was in someone else's hand, he could use my ATM cad to make unauthorised transactions. My worst fears were realised when the officer on the phone said that 3 transactions were done at about 8.30am! Mistake number 2, I had used an easy pin code which enabled the culprit to get into my account in a matter of minutes. I immediately told him that my card was stolen and the transactions were unauthorised and he advised me to block the card immediately, which I did.
So I wasn't going to find my wallet in the room anymore and my identification card, driving license, meal card, name cards, and other stuff were in there. Some of the stuff which may be hard to obtain again. I did a search around the hostel to see if the person had thrown my wallet anywhere but it was no where to be found.
At about 3pm, I headed to the CIMB branch in my campus and reported the matter to an officer. She advised me to make a police report and apply for a temporary identifaction card so that they can proceed with the case and gather information on the culprit. So it was a trip down to the local police station and we spent about an hour or so reporting our case to the police officer on duty which transfered our case to another branch. We then headed to the other branch and waited for another hour or so before we were attended to. After taking down my statements, I realised it has already almost 5 hours since we left the campus for CIMB and the sky was already dark. It was exhausting, running up and down.
On Thursday, I got my temporary idenfication card done and headed down to CIMB again to follow up on the case. CIMB managed to trace the location of the bank in which the culprit did the unauthorised withdrawal. They're still in the process of tracing the person and I should be able to identify him by this week but it's no guarantee. Sometimes all this that's happening seem so surreal. It feels like a criminal investigation drama. The money lost will probably never be recovered but I hope the culprit doesn't get away with it. I guess I'll have to be extra careful with all my belongings and of course, my pin number as well. Using an easy pin number is inviting more trouble than it is a convenience to you.
I'm comforted by the fact that the intruder did not harm me as I slept away like a dead log and wasn't even aware of what went on in my room. Thank God for the protection and the guidance he is providing even as I go through this time of difficulty.
Interestingly, or rather sadly, this is not the first time I've lost some money, but this is indeed the biggest amount. You can read about it here and here.
Au revoir!
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| | Posted 5/8/2009 12:45 AM - 80 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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