This morning as I was preparing for the drive back to Kuantan, our neighbour knocked on the door with some devastating news. It seems that my car had been broken into during the night. I was shocked and understandably very distressed. When I went to survey the damage, my heart sank. The vandal/low-life/thief had smashed both front windows and ripped up the car dashboard to try and steal the car radio. Despite the level of destruction, he was not even successful in doing that. Even if he had managed to do it, how much could he have fenced it for? Not more than a few ringgit, surely. What was most surprising was that despite the damage, the alarm did not go off or if it did, nobody heard it.
Since my parents had to rush out to attend an important event, I was left to settle things by myself. I decided to snap a few pictures first before going to the police station to file a report. As I took the photos, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of despair. I needed the car, to drive back to Kuantan, to go to work, to send the kids to school. So I sat down on the curb and cried. A passing motorcyclist stopped and asked me if I was ok. Even though I told him that I was fine, and it was just the car, he did not want to leave me there alone. He said that there have been cases before where upon seeing women in distress, criminals will then mug them. He told me not to worry and called the police to send a patrol car.
A young couple who were jogging past also stopped and kept me company. In fact, when they found out that I was alone and had to go to the police station, they accompanied me and stayed throughout the whole process until my car was safely in the workshop. They were a couple years younger than me and very recently (3 weeks) married and I had never met them before. Both Shahrul & Akmam & the nice man who was just on his way home from the market (who I didn't even have the chance to ask his name though he stayed until we went to the police station) were total strangers but they were kind enough to help a fellow human being in distress. For that, I am very grateful.
There is no denying that I am deeply saddened by what happened but InsyaAllah this is a lesson in patience.
