When I first arrived in Saudi Arabia, I was warned about a specific tactic used by car thieves where they would initiate a 'fender-bender' accident, causing you to jump out of your car to check the damage. Then, while you're inspecting the back of your car and talking to the driver that hit you, his partner sneaks into your car and drives away.
When I heard this, I brushed it off as something that rarely occurs and is simply being highlighted due to the shock factor.
Until recently, that is.
A few months back, my friend's co-worker had newly arrived to the Kingdom and was running some errands with his family. As is normally the custom here, the husband will run into a corner shop to quickly grab some fruits or bread, while the family sits in the car. And due to the immense heat, the car will remain running with the A/C for the family's sake.
In the case of this fellow, while he was in the store, a car thief broke the window, jumped into his car, and drove off, WITH THE FAMILY INSIDE!
Thankfully, the criminal had some mercy and let out the family further down the road. Needless to say, the victim and his family were extremely distraught and soon left the Kingdom.
I was shocked when I heard this story as the incident was closer to home than some news item in the paper. Yet, I was still undeterred and maintained my practice of leaving the car running with my family inside.
Until two weeks ago when my very own friend had a similarly unfortunate incident. He had just finished shopping at IKEA and pulled his car up to the loading area to get his family and their items. He casually got out to put the bags in the trunk and help his wife with the baby, and in the blink of an eye, a car zoomed up, dude jumped out and into my friend's car, and both cars sped off.
Thankfully, the family was not in the car. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for his wallet (including the most essential Iqama card) and cell phone. Somewhat happy ending in that last week the police found the car abandoned in the outskirts of the city.
Regardless, this one hit too close for comfort. Since then, I've become alot more vigilante in turning off my car while my family waits inside. I would strongly recommend all others to follow suit.
Not sure what we're going to do when the summer heat arrives.
Just don’t call it genocide
1 week ago
15 comments:
Wow !!! I guess you're not safe anywhere. I figured that the KSA was a place where you would not have to worry about this type of problem. I always figured that this was mostly a US phenomenon. I guess this is too much home for comfort :-(
As for turning off your car with your family still in the car, perhaps you could keep the car running and just luck the car doors if your family choose to sit it out.
Greg
That's the thing with living in KSA the crime rate is deliberately kept a mystery so when you hear stuff like this you're left astounded at the fact that such crimes are occurring here. I heard of an incident (not a car jacking but an actual kidnapping) which ended really badly. A young couple from Pakistan came to perform Umrah. They went searching for a taxi and settled for a private driver acting as one (you can pay private drivers to drive you around short distances). Before the husband could get in the driver drove off with the wife in the car!! The husband literally lost his mind because they never found the wife. It's stories like this that make you realize how messed up the world is today (no one is safe from anyone's wrongdoing including from Muslims).
Woah at the above comment about the wife being driven off... I would probably go crazy in that case too. Very saddening to hear about things like this occurring in the holy lands.
Btw...they have IKEA in Saudi Arabia..interesting.
-Faique
Assalamoalaikum
Please remember to always recite duas to save us from unforeseen calamities and keep us under the protection of Allah s.w.t. May Allah protect us all. Inshallah
The following website has a few but I will try to dig the ones that are most appropriate when you leave home or embark upon a journey.
http://www.duas.org/enemy.htm
AA-
@Anon1, overall, KSA is a very safe place, especially compared to the places I've been (USA and Pakistan). I still feel more safer here than I've ever felt in those other places.
About locking the door, as the first example I cited, the carjacker actually broke the window.
@R, your tale is alot worse than the two I narrated. Yeah, those private cabs are very dangerous - I choose to pay the extra fare by the official taxis over the discounted dudes transporting people in their personal cars.
@MK, long time no hear kid. Hope all is well....yeah, IKEA is here and so is everything else. TGIF, Johnny Rockets, AppleBees, and more European clothing stores than you can imagine!
@Anon2, May Allah bless you for the sagely advice! Indeed, we can all benefit from the protection of our most Loving Lord. Better than any car lock or alarm system out there! :-)
As Salaamu Alaikum,
Sadly, this happens in a lot of places. In Puerto Rico, people are warned about driving at night. The car jackers will put things in the road to make the driver stop, get out, and remove the object. Then of course, the thieves jump in, drive off, and leave the poor driver in a bad situation.
But jacking the car with people inside! Ya Allah! You would think that would result in additional charges if the thief was ever caught.
May Allah swt reward you for bringing awareness of the problem in the KSA, and for your advice.
i wonder what would happen if the wife happened to have a weapon and knew how to use it....that would be interesting.
Your friend is lucky to get his car back.Everyone should be very careful no matter where they live.Real shocking to read RCHOUDH's comment.I hope something is being done about this.
Lat
I'm just curious, are there any statistics about the nationality of those who are perpetrating these crimes? I mean, are these actual Saudis doing this??
AA-
@Safiyyah, the scary thing about KSA is that these incidents have happened in broad daylight. And yeah, the people being inside makes it infinitely more tragic.
@Anon1, funny you mention that cause I've thought about some sort of engine-kill switch accessible to the wife sitting in the back. In case something like this were to ever happen, at least she could turn the car off. Or maybe some 3rd party service (like OnStar) that could disable the car...nothing like that is available here and it would probably be a good business idea. Any investors? :-)
@Lat, yeah my friend is double lucky cause he didn't have insurance.
@Anon2, crime stats are not really made public here for obvious reasons, but from what I've heard most of these crimes are carried out by locals. My gut feeling is that expats are too afraid of the serious repercussions in case they ever get caught.
But then again, its also common knowledge that alot of the criminal underworld (prostitution, alcohol, drugs, etc.) is run by expats, so you never really know.
Wow, things sure have changed in KSA. This sort of thing would have been unheard of sometime ago. In the UAE thankfully it's still safe.
@Anon2, crime stats are not really made public here for obvious reasons, but from what I've heard most of these crimes are carried out by locals. My gut feeling is that expats are too afraid of the serious repercussions in case they ever get caught.
But then again, its also common knowledge that alot of the criminal underworld (prostitution, alcohol, drugs, etc.) is run by expats, so you never really know.
The reason I ask is because I used to live and study in Saudi for a few years back in the late 90's and something like this would have been absolutely UNIMAGINABLE (in fact, I still can't believe it!). I would be shocked further to hear that it was locals (Saudis).
May Allah guide us, our Ummah, and the nations of the world... Amin.
AA- Mezba, Anon,
Yeah, things here in Riyadh have changed quite a lot...for the worse.
I regularly hear locals reminiscing of days gone by, where they would leave their cars running *unattended* while they run in the store.
But KSA is not immune from this global plague of corruption and crime.
But like I commented above, I still feel much, much safer here than the US or Pakistan.
Thanx for sharing this coz me n my husband are planning to shift to saudia from pakistan n this is really horrible ,also bcoz u r alone away from ur home land.
@Naeem : i want to get website for jobs in riyadh. do u ve any idea
My dad's Honda Accord got stolen this exact same way last year. Someone crashed into his car from the back (with another honda accord, ironically) and when my dad left the car to see what happened they drove off with it. We got it back some 2 weeks later and it was so damaged my dad didn't want to look at it. I drove it to the police station, we got the papers done and insurance paid for everything. I think they take them out to the desert and skid with them then abandon them somewhere.
Like you recommended, I never leave the car on when I pop into a store for anything, or doing anything else for that matter..
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