Exactly a week before elections, on Monday 11 February my six-months-old car was stolen from its parking place on the street below my commercial area apartment. And in broad daylight. It was there when I checked at 10 am and had disappeared by 11 am when I checked again.
My First reaction was nausea caused by the shock. My purpose here is to make known the latest mode in car theft. My mind went totally blank. It simply could not register what I was supposed to do in the circumstance. It took a few minutes before I ranged the tracker company but even then I was not yet clear-headed. I forgot both the normal and emergency passwords. All I could give them was my name and car number.
This must be a common reaction of victims of car theft because the tracker people were very sympathetic and understanding. "Don't worry madam, take your time, its all right, we will find it for you. That is what we are here for". The kind assurance finally calmed me and I was able to recall both passwords. I had chosen the birth month and year of a person nearest to me as my passwords precisely because they were unforgettable. A few minutes later they asked me the name of my insurance company. Again I could not recall it. The insurance documents were still with the bank from which I had purchased my car on leasing. I rang them and they told me the name and posted the insurance documents Half an hour later, the tracker company rang up again and said they had found my car, their chief security officer was at the location where it was found but they would not tell me the location as they wanted to catch the thieves.
Soon after I had called the tracker company, they told me to call Madadgar 15, the Anti Car Lifting Cell. I did that because the tracker company asked me to. I have no faith in any police department personally. I speak from experience as this was the second new car I had lost in 14 months. The alleged operation to recover the first vehicle was entirely handled by the Defence Police station and the CPLC.
Not for a moment had I felt reassured. They conducted their work in the style of "daftari baboos", full of red-tap documentation signifying nothing. They took their time making a tentative report of the theft (called Kuchi parchi) and three days later they were reluctant to Register a formal FIR. It took a month before they handed the final report of the theft, without which the insurance company could not process my claim.
That too, took months. Then came the long-drawn procedure of processing my new application for leasing since I refused to take the car on "On", as they call the extra charge for quick delivery, I had to wait three months before I got a car. In all it had taken nine months before the new car was in my possession.
Every time I have had a new car I was thrilled to bits, but this time the new car did not delight me because I was emotionally and financially badly scared by the theft of the previous car. However, I thought it would not be stolen because it had a tracker fitted in.
When the car was back in the lane below my apartment it was treated like a hero. Adults and children came to look. The news of the theft and recovery had spread like wildfire and people were amazed that a stolen car had been recovered so fast. It looked untouched. So many people wanted to know the name of the tracker company which had wrought this miracle.
My apartment is in Phase IV DHA's commercial area. The people who live in the commercial area apartments are generally will-to-do but do not believe in the lifestyle of the affluent. They only spend money on cars and are always worried about car theft as they have to park on the road. There are expensive Hondas and the more pricey range of Suzukis and Mazdas and Koraes.
All the cars are brand new or just a year or two old. Believe me, there is just a single jalopy in the entire row of buildings where my apartment is. All these vehicles stand on the road. Hence it is a popular hunting ground for car thieves. Alarm systems are no problem for the thieves to circumvent, but the tracker systems have stumped them - so far.
One of the changes that has come in the mode of car lifting is because of the satellite tracking. It can accurately pinpoint the location of a vehicle, indicate if it is standing or moving and if the car goes out of the safe area of the city into the notorious regions known as "no-no" areas the vehicle automatically stops. If it is reported stolen the jamming device is activated by the tracking company and the vehicle cannot be moved. The thieves. Know this. What they cannot tell is if a car has the tracking device fitted in.
As a result a stolen vehicle is not immediately taken out of the city in case it stops in the no-go areas. New places have been established within the city where a stolen car can be parked and tinkered without anybody suspecting it is a stolen vehicle. Such an area is Phase-II-extension DHA from where my car was recovered.
This place has already gained some notoriety as the hiding place of the al Qaida and Taliban type of people. Ramzi was captured from this place, if you recall. It is an ideal place for car thieves also because the numerous food shops and workshops act as a camouflage. Residents of Phase II-extension may not suspect a car parked there is stolen. They are likely to think it belongs to a customer at the food shops. It is most convenient to have workshops where the stolen car can be dismantled.
Late at night, when the ACLC sub inspector Allahyar Afridi rang me to come and take possession of my car, I went to lane-5 in my sister's vehicle. I saw that my car was neatly parked and had been covered. The Wintrack Chief security officer Shabbir Shah was there. The car was unveiled. It showed that the dashboard had been ripped open and the wires inside the bonnet were cut, also the stepney and jack were missing. The policeman and tracker security officer had spent the whole day staking the place in the hope that the thieves would return.
Afridi told me the very fact that the car was neatly parked proved that the thieves lived in the area and knew it was safeplace. They had covered the vehicle so that they could return anytime and "work" on it. "But these swines are clever. They must have realised their game was up and did not approach the car in the past 12 hours".
However, car recovery has greatly improved because of the co-operation between the ACLC and the tracker companies. It should be noted that the main credit goes to the tracker company. ACLC has extensive powers compared to area police. It can operate in any jurisdiction, but the power did not help them much before the introduction of satellite tracking.
Shabbir Shah said it was to ease my worry that they abandoned the stake-out so soon, otherwise they would have spent two even three or more days to catch the thieves. He said he along with ACLC had managed to nab many thieves. I asked him to describe the thieves. "They belong to all walks of life, they dress ordinarily, they are teenagers as well as fifty and sixty-year-old men. Most of them look respectable and none of them looks suspicious be they young or old".
People living in commercial area apartment have to park cars on the road. I have become paranoid. Now if there is a strange car parked too long in the lanes near my house I imagine it is a stolen vehicle. If some people so much as stand near my parked car, I think they are thieves.
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