The day I got robbed

It’s been almost a month since my phone got stolen. I am now calm enough to write a proper post about it.
It happened on 10th of March 2020. I went out to have food and in general roam around in the market. I went to KFC that day. It was good, everything was good. While returning, I didn’t have enough money to take a cab from the market (it is around 7 kms from my institute). I decided I would walk for sometime and then take a cab. I walked for about a kilometer and then I took a turn into a very quiet and dark street. I didn’t realise then but it was a grave mistake. I took out my phone and started looking for a cab on the corner of the street. As I couldn’t find one, I switched on YouTube and started watching videos whilst moving forward. In hindsight, that was mistake number two. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bike came and a guy just snatched my phone from my hands. It was sudden and it was with a lot of force and I didn’t get the time to react. Few seconds later I ran after him in vain. I gave up after sometime and he zoomed away on the bike.

I was dead scared, I didn’t know where I was and didn’t know what to do. It all seemed new to me and the whole place seemed scary. I went to the nearest shop that I could find. It was a saloon and I asked him for help. I called the police using his phone and waited for them to respond. Meanwhile the barber and another guy who was getting a haircut advised me not to call the police as they would just take money and not do anything. I didn’t know who to trust, but I wanted to give things a try. I called the police again and they asked me for a location. A little while later, the police van arrived and they took me to the nearest police station. I lodged a written complaint and then I was let to go. The havaldar gave me some money for a cab back (I was really broke after eating!). I couldn’t get cabs without my phone but I was able to get an auto for halfway ride. Then I had to walk another 2 kms to reach campus. The walk back to campus was pretty difficult for me. I was tensed, scared, angry, but most importantly helpless.

After I got back, the first thing I did was call my mom and my girlfriend. I told them that my phone got stolen and I won’t be able to take any calls for sometime now and that they shouldn’t worry about me. Next I called my dad. It was a difficult conversation for me as I felt like he would be very angry and disappointed in me, but he was kind of warm. He asked me if I needed another phone and he told me that it happens.

The whole night and most of the next day was spent trying to remember what all accounts were present in the phone, changing all the passwords and logging out if possible. I went to the bank too and changed my phone number. Next I had to resuscitate my old phone numbers and I was able to do that too. Woah! I accomplished a lot of things in a day. The day after I went to the police station again to ask them and lodge a proper FIR. Finding the same police station was really difficult and I had to cycle for about 8 to 10 kms in circles before reaching. I asked them to lodge a proper FIR as it was a case of theft, but the inspector seemed uninterested in it. After some quarreling I settled for a DDR and I didn’t expect them to really care for the phone and I was also kind of not really interested in getting it back by that point. It was anyways mostly broken and I would have replaced it soon enough in the summer. I met with the havaldar who had offered me money and tried to return it to him (After all, I’m also good like him :P ), he declined (#respect).
So yeah, here I am writing this and remembering that day, mostly laughing about it now. But the experience was really scary, especially as I was alone here in the institute instead of being in the comfort of my home.

The whole experience made me realize one thing, the world isn’t as good as I wanted it to be, not only are there criminals, but there are also policemen who are uninterested in their jobs and want to take the easy way out. We live in a country where most of the crimes are thought of as simple things and not anything serious. This needs to change! A crime is a crime no matter how small or whatever the reason for a person to commit the crime. What do you think?