Of thieves Mark II

I am away from the office this whole week. No, I’m not on leave. I’m somewhere attending negotiations with some of my colleagues on behalf of the company the details of which I cannot divulge. That is amongst the essence of my work; keeping the company’s secrets. The negotiations are of utmost importance to the company and the burden thrust on the negotiation team is a heavy one. The thing that makes it even heavier is I simply cannot bear to open my eyes this morning.

Last night I had about only one and a half-hours of sleep. I experienced a recurrence of something which happened to me a few months ago. The last time, two men attempted to enter my house’s premises and in my view, tried to break in. I even wrote about it. This time, after going to sleep at about 12.30 a.m., I was awaken at 2 a.m. to the sound of a fracas on my house’s ceiling. It sounded like somebody was walking, probably running on the roof trusses. Which scared me to no end. I got up in a flash and listened to the sound which showed no signs of abating. I immediately went outside the house and called the nearby police station. I was given the answer, “nanti kita hantar anggota” and that satisfied me. I stayed outdoors, still shaking with fear.

Twenty minutes on, still no sign of the police. The “anggota” did not show up. At least not yet. Luckily the security guys (to whom I pay RM40 per month) came over. Why I didn’t call them in the first place beats me. I told them what happened and brought them upstairs to check the situation out. Upon further inspection of the ceiling, they couldn’t find anybody lurking/hiding which was a big relief. According to the security guys, the intruder may be trying to get away from somewhere else or getting ready to burgle my house. But the question I had was, if the intruder had the intention of doing any of the aforementioned, why would he/she be making such a ruckus? To this, the security guys had no answer. Mind you, all the inspection took about 15 minutes by the end of which the “anggota” was still nowhere to be found.

Hate to say this, but no wonder Johor’s crime rate is on the up and up. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt shall we? Probably they don’t have enough “anggota” to go round. Probably. Finally the policeman made his appearance, a full 45 minutes after the call was made, looking all concerned but evidently unable to do anything meaningful. Thank God for the security guys. They said their goodbyes at 3 a.m. and I was suddenly left all alone. I was determined to sleep as I have to be in the office by 6 a.m. to settle some work before leaving for the negotiations venue at 7 a.m. As is always with things like this, any attempt to sleep will be in vain.

After trying (and failing miserably) to sleep, I decided to get up (note: not wake up) at 4.30 a.m. and get ready to go to the office. I arrived at 5 a.m. which must be some sort of a record. Did what I had to do and left for the negotiations venue at 7 a.m. It’s a 125 kilometres drive. Which is in any case not advisable what more when you did not get enough sleep the night before. So now I’m labouring along, just waiting for the session to end (it has not started, mind you) when I could retire to my room (my entitlement means I get a room to myself) and crash. I’m seriously thinking of looking for a new place to stay now. A place which is less of a security hazard. Probably an apartment. The thing is I got this semi-detached unit on the cheap and it’s fully furnished. But I have to stop cheap skating and look for a new place. For real.

Oh, and a final word. The police have got to seriously improve their response time.

If only real thieves/burglars look this funny. *Image credit to Google.