Monday, August 6, 2007

I got robbed outside of a bank in India

5 days ago, I was robbed outside of a bank in India. This is what happened:

I was coming out of my bank with a briefcase. The briefcase had my passbook, checkbook, and about Rs.10,000 which I had withdrawn from the bank. I reached my car which was parked outside the bank, and put my briefcase on the passenger seat. Just then, a man walked in front of my car and gestured to the ground as though I had dropped some money outside of my car. The man quickly disappeared away. Now, as I had just come from a bank, I thought maybe I had accidentally dropped some money outside. So, I went out my car, and searched around the car to see what had happened. There, I noticed that many Rs.10 bills were scattered outside of my car! Needless to say, I was shocked and confused since I did not remember dropping any Rs.10 notes. So, I bent down and started picking up the notes. When I stood up, I was still confused and looked around to see if someone might have accidentally dropped their money. Suddenly, it struck me that the man who was gesturing to the ground had purposely dropped the money outside and that my briefcase had been left unattended inside my car. Of course, when I frantically searched my car, my briefcase was gone!!! Astonishingly, this all happened within 20 seconds!

I quickly went inside the bank and notified the robbery. They told me that similar thing had happened before! I must say that they weren't very helpful but they did block my account and checkbook so that no money could be withdrawn from my account.

I then went to the police station and filed a report. It turns out that there were 5 other robberies that had occurred the same time I was robbed (possibly a large gang as the police told me). The entire police force was out looking for the culprits. About 30 minutes later, the police called my mobile and told me that my briefcase had been found! The money was gone but all the papers were still there! The police had found the briefcase lying on the side of the road near a hotel (some 3 kilometers from the bank).

Of course, there is no hope of recovering the money. I am very disappointed at myself that I let this happen. However, I guess I have learned an important lesson and it could have been much worse. The police were telling me that some people had lost Lakhs of Rupees. Thank god, I only lost Rs.10,000! It certainly won't happen again.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hi my father saw this happen to someone _--not u .exactly the same in this case the driver was busy piking up the money when the briefcase was piked up. good samaritan brought it back. it didnt have any money though.

Alekh said...

I feel sorry for the driver. It seems like this is a common practice throughout India.

Frankly, if someone did this to me again, I would run after them and give them a good bashing! :)