Nightshift:call center agent’s blog

This morning, a colleague at the call center lost his cellphone from a snatcher. The right hand pocket of his pants was slashed, about three to four inches long, and he has to use his body bag to hide the cut. It’s a high end Nokia mobile phone but the more important thing is he wasn’t hurt in the bus.

I consider myself lucky that I haven’t had a bad experience like that. The worst that I got was four or five years ago (I have to check my journal), where I was in the jeep going to Antipolo (via the Sumulong highway).Four holduppers were in the jeep, and one was beside me. They weren’t able to get my phone, which was a Motorola then. My phone was in the bag. One holdupper just frisked the two pockets of my pants.

What makes this incident more interesting is the fact that somehow, I knew beforehand that something bad will happen. The night before, I saw in TV Patrol the case of a female student who was raped bythree men, in connivance with the jeepney driver. The student was the only passenger in the jeep and he drove the vehicle to a dark spot in the place.

One of the passengers on the jeep I was riding was a pretty female nursing student. You can say it is gut feel, but I noticed that these men were looking at each other. Their eyes are moving. I just thought, what if that rape incident will happen to that pretty co-ed? It’s just wild thought when the man beside me pulled a knife and looked for my phone. “Nasa’n ang cellphone mo?” All I can say is “Wala.”

A woman tried to alight from the jeep but he was prevented by another holdupper. The driver noticed the robbery and asked the fare collecter (kundoktor), “Boy, ano ba yan?”

I didn’t know what valuable items were taken by the holdupper. The incident happened in a span of two minutes, in the Marikina bridge. The jeep, by the way, came from Cubao. The jeep stopped in the middle of the road. I just saw the robbers ran towards Major Dizon.

A holdup in a public vehicles is one of the rare incidents where strangers talk to each other, asking what the robbers took from them and the cost or price of the looted items. I just heard from them that the target is the fat man, seated near the entrance/exit, who has a gold necklace and bracelet.

Another incident happened in front of the Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall in Cainta, Rizal. I was seated in the jeepney bound to Angono. The traffic light is red. I noticed a man lurking around the vehicle. When the light turned green, he immediately snatched the necklace of a lady and ran towards the billiard hall on the opposite side of the road.

The corner of Katipunan Avenue and Aurora Boulevard used to be a hotspot for snatchers. And these are not robbers who make quiet moves. I even saw a couple who fit their hands inside a man’s backpack as they were trying to get into a jeepney.

I myself was a victim on that area when one rainy day, when I was waiting for a ride and was holding an umbrella, I felt somebody touched my bag. Luckily, all he got was a wallet with my school registration form (Form 5), a prayer book, and a small amount of money (either it’s P20 or P50). When I felt someone opened my bag, I immediately looked around and noticed a man who looks suspicious. I only realized that I lost my wallet when weekend came.

If my cellphone was in the bag when I was a near-victim of holdup in the jeep, my phone this time was in my pocket. Swertihan lang.

And I already told the story of the incident in the MRT, when I got my prize in Deal or No Deal.

So far, I haven’t changed my cellphone number. I’ve had it since March 2002. Hopefully, I would keep that number as long as I have a cellphone.

Keywords: cellphone, cellular phone, mobile, smart communications, globe telecom, sun cellular, holdup, police report, snatching, victim