"Losing my Phone"

"Losing my Phone"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

One fine day my dad was the victim of snatchers as he boarded an LRT.Realizing that his wallet was gone my dad was still able to go home because money tucked in somewhere other than his wallet. He went back to ride the LRT in hopes that he would find those people who snatched his wallet only to find out that the wallet he had brought with him was snatched as well.

I vowed to myself that I would be careful , that I would not let something like that happen to me. Yet on that hot summer morning , the hottest day of the summer months it did happen to me. My phone was gone. 

On that day I had the car with me and as I went down I moved it to a better parking spot near our place. I was almost tempted to bring the car with me there and then but I said to myself that I could save more money if I just take the LRT and take the care when I had my nightly duties in Eastwood , Libis. It would turn out to be a big mistake. In my need to save it ended up costing me much more.

The lines in the LRT was a lot better that day.I felt better with the cordoned ropes which I thought would prevent any snatchers from escaping. I was so wrong. Anybody stealing anything from you could just stay inside the train and go down in any station without you even noticing. 

What happened to me happened so fast. A train has stopped and the warning buzzer that the doors would be opening was going off. I had my bag stuffed in front of me. I had my hands stuffed inside my front pockets. My left hand covering my phone and my right hand covering the small wallet that I carried with me. I immediately noticed a man on my left who came out of nowhere. He was bumping into me so I knew that he was about to try something. I did not budge. I did not move my hands. The train door opened. 

I rushed to the right to get into the middle of the carriage. The man who was wearing a white barong and grey slacks(yes he looked like a normal office employee , the guy even had a clean hair cut) bumped me from behind , causing me to lose balance momentarily. I was carried by my momentum and I had to grab hold of the nearest pole. I would have hit my face if I didn't get my left hand out to stop me from falling.) After I had steadied myself I returned my left hand to cover my phone. It was gone.

I looked at the guy with the while polo barong , I swear that I saw him put my black Sony Experia in the back pocket of his pants. I had to push myself from the now crowded train to reach the guy. 

"Sir , wala tayong magiging problema kung isasauli mo na lang sa akin ang phone ko."

Instead of getting angry the guy stood there and spread his arms out. "Wala oh. Wala" was all he said. 

I reached out to his back pocket and true enough there was no phone there. I opened his bag and frisked him. He could be hiding it somewhere else I was rationalizing it in my mind. My phone was gone. In my state I did not care if I was offending a couple of people, I went to some other people with grey slacks and touched their back pockets too. Later on I would consider myself lucky that no one punched me or swore at me as I did this.Without my phone on him my main suspect merely walked to another part of the train. I was left there stunned. I could not think of anything else except how to reach my wife and daughter.

I was thinking of all the contacts that I have amassed over the years. All those previous texts of information and affection gone in an instant because I wanted to save a couple hundred of bucks on gas!

I felt so isolated.I have never been the victim of any crime before this and I hated the feeling that I have lost the first phone that I have bought with my own money.I didn't even notice that I was already in UN avenue. I got down and called my our house in Valenzuela to have my phone blocked. It was not the greatest feeling in the world to have but I had to go to work and I spend the day in a daze. When I got home my wife was concerned why my phone was turned off and when I told her what happened she and my daughter hugged me as I rested. They were just happy that I was not hurt.

I cannot say that this event will not happen again. Nothing is set in stone nowadays but I will sure as hell try to take measures that it does not happen again.