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Note: This posting also appears in the Star 29 Jul 2010 (under Views- Letters to the Editor titled "Lucky escape for carjacked sisters")
Today’s newspapers carry another familiar story. Parents of Siti Haida, 6 and Nurul Fatin Farhana Dzulkafli, 17, left them in their unlocked car with the engine running when they stopped briefly to enter a photo shop in Perak. They did not see any danger in doing so.
But soon they realized that was a very big mistake. Three robbers jumped in the car and drove away with the sisters.
It was fortunate that the kids were left unharmed two hours later in a secluded spot some 20 km away, and it was also fortunate that they met a kind man who took them to the police station. It could have been much worse. It could have been a real tragedy the parents will never recover from, and they will blame themselves for the rest of their lives.
Definitely this was not the first incident of its kind. It happened numerous times before. What shocks me is that people just don’t seem to learn. Maybe we always think that it can only happen to someone else, not us.
I always make sure my kids lock the door when I leave them in the car, even when the engine is not running. I just won’t leave the car until they lock it and I test the door. If it is a short stop, I will not leave the engine running and take the key with me. I keep telling my wife to do the same thing every time she drives them, at any location, no matter how safe it looks, no matter how short she stops. It is really not hard to do, and it is much better than to feel sorry later.
Nobody can tell, but I might have actually prevented a similar incident from happening to my family.
And I always tell myself that if a tragedy can happen, it will happen one day if you don’t take precautions. Precautions are like an insurance; it is better to have it when you don’t seem to need it, than not to have it when you need it.
By the way, the father, Major Dzulkafli Ahmad, is the deputy commandant at the Armed Forces staff college in KL.
He should have known better.
Hear! Hear!
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