JEDDAH: On her way back from the grocery store in the early evening, Um Abdullah had her purse snatched by two guys on a motorbike. She yelled “thieves!” and a group of boys in a car chased after the snatchers; but they were long gone. Um Abdullah never saw the bag again.
In another incident, Um Mosad was robbed of her mobile phone at the branch of a supermarket when she placed the device on the counter to take out money from her bag and pay the cashier. The guy standing next to her just snatched the purse and fled.
Unfortunately, incidents like this are not isolated; in most cases the crooks target women. Farha says she was almost robbed by four guys in the empty section of a supermarket. “I was picking out some things and suddenly I noticed that all four of these men had closed in on me,” she said.
“I shouted for security and then they backed off. The guard then came and asked them to leave.” Zain had an experience with a thief that had apparently a bit of a conscience.
“I was in a mall when suddenly I saw that my handbag had just gone missing, I don’t even know at exactly what point it got stolen. More than anything I wanted the key to the brand new car I had brought, and my SIM card. So I sent an SMS to the thief saying ‘I forgive you for the things you’ve stolen. But please return the car key and the SIM card as you cannot benefit by a mere key since I still have the car, and the SIM card has information about people you don’t know.’”
Zain received an SMS from the thief the next day saying her keys and SIM card were in a plant pot at a mall.
Zain hurried there and found the items. Jeddah police spokesman Col. Misfer Al-Juaid says that the thieves that do this are part of gangs. “We have arrested many of them and the secret police is searching for the rest,” he said.
