An October Tragedy

An October Tragedy

I had promised to write about my honeymoon in NZ in my last entry. But something happened last weekend that probably warrants this to be written first: my house was broken into last Saturday, on the 2nd day of Ramadhan.

When it happened, my family and I were just concluding our Subuh prayers in the main hall of our house, which is on the ground floor. I had heard some strange sounds coming from the roof that morning when I woke up for sahur, but I dismissed it to being sounds made by a cat or monkey, which was always the case. Apparently the robbers came in through the window of my parents’s room, which was the only window in the house that didn’t have grills.

When I saw them coming down and confronted us in the main hall, the situation had not sunk in to me yet, and I thought it was my brother in law. But then it occured to me that my brother in law and my sister were away at his parents’s house that morning. By the time it sunk in, they were already around us, and they were armed with knives and a hammer. My feeling then was one of utmost dread, and I could feel my blood draining from my face. Pucat gila..

One of the robbers repeatedly told us to be quiet and not resist or he would kill us. He kept saying, ‘Kau kalau gerak aku bunuh semuanya. Aku bunuh isteri kau. Aku bunuh kamu nanti.’ They tied all the men in the house, which were my dad, my brother and myself. My father tried to talk to them and reason with them and one of the robbers hit him as a result. We were too stumped to do anything. And I feared the worst.

They told us that they just wanted to rob us, and they had no intention of harming us. Ironically, they kept telling us that they were fellow Muslims, and that they were fasting as we were. Before we knew it, they were ransacking the house for valuables. My dad and I plead that no one was harmed, and one of them made a reassurance that they were Muslims, and they wouldn’t do such a thing. I felt like saying back, ‘orang Islam pun merompak ke’, but my brother, sensing my intention from my expression, gave me a nudge that any answer to his statement wouldn’t be the right one. At least the robber’s reassurance calmed me.

The robbers left the house with our valuables after a ransacking galore that lasted for almost half an hour. It could have been worse. They only left because the house phone rang incessantly, and they got scared. I realised later that they’d been scared all the while they were in the house. It was just a matter of who was more scared between them and us. It turns out the call was made by my wife, who was outside the house washing when the intruders broke into the house. She managed to escape by climbing up our 10 feet tall front gate, and ran to the neighbour's house to get help. To this day, she still wonders how she’d done it, especially when she was wearing kain batik time tuh. You're a hero dear! : - )

My first fear when I saw the intruders in the house was the safety of my mother and my wife. I’ve heard so many tragic stories where the robbers have other intentions than robbing their victims once they’d broken into their house, and it has always been one of my worst nightmares when the robbers have ill-intentions on the women in the house. A friend of my neighbour’s house was broken into, and the robbers did the unspeakable to their daughter in front of them. Nauzubillah...

The general feeling is that around this time of the year, when Raya Aidilfitri is approaching is when robberies become rampant. It is when these people rob to have enough money to either go back to their homes (especially the immigrant labours), or get new stuffs for the big day. Either way it’s wise to be careful. Never take for granted the funny sounds you hear around the house.