What to do When Criminals/Thieves Attack

What to do when Criminals/Thieves Attack?

As promised in my last blog, ” How criminals can loot you? -3 new ways! , I am before you with my research on some other tricks that the goons have been using. Most importantly, I will share some Dos & Don’ts to deal with such situations. But before that let's peep into some more ways in which you can be tricked by these hooligans:

a) Replacing real gold with artificial gold:

This is a very common incident in the Indian hinterland. And the victims are generally the innocent housewives.  A trickster (male or female, usually female) would come to the house in a sunny afternoon, when there is no male member in the house. S/he will offer to polish the Gold ornaments and make it shine like diamonds; while doing so s/he will replace the original gold with the fake one.  You might be thinking how does the trickster know in advance what gold items will be offered for polishing? Actually, there are some Gold ornaments which are very popular, and every other woman has that, e.g. a plain gold chain. So they hide such items beforehand and within a wink of your eyes replace original with the fake one.

b)Credit Card swipe at Petrol Pumps:

If you use credit/debit card at Petrol Pumps then beware next time. The attendant, who takes your card to swipe, may play with it just before the actual swipe. These scoundrels are using a small device, a skimmer, when they swipe the card on it all the details of your card gets captured in it, and they use these details to make a duplicate card. And as you guessed it right, they shop whatever they wish in one go and destroy the card forever. Wow! What a game! 

c) ATM Skimming

The same device, the one used in above case, is beautifully installed on the ATM entry or on the main machine itself. Naturally, one mistakes it as a part of process in withdrawing the money and swipes it, again all the details are leaked and the crooks can play with your money.

d)Lost child

You may spot an innocent child standing in a lonely place and crying for her parents. As a good human being you would be inclined to help her, but please beware. There have been some incidents where people have tried to drop the child at the address told by her, but when they reach the destination they become the victim to the plot designed by rogues.

e) Offering "Prasad” ( a kind of edibles offered after  God’s worship)

This is amongst the most common trick used by crooks in India. What happens - a well-to-do looking person traveling with you in a train or bus befriends you, after a couple of hours you become very-very comfortable with him/her. Then sometimes later he offers you something to eat, generally “Prasad”, and if you are an Indian, you know how difficult it is to say NO to “Prasad.”  Again as you would have guessed it, the “Prasad” is mixed with some sleep inducing chemical, and within minutes you become unconscious. And I need not explain what happens next.

So, we know so much about these trickster, but all said and done the Murphy’s law still applies, “if something  has to go wrong , it will” , Therefore,  I want to share my views on what to do and more importantly what not do, If you fall in such a situation. Especially the ones mentioned in “How criminals can loot you?-3 new ways!” 

Presumption:  You have become a victim of a plot and have been attacked by a set of offenders who aim at looting your valuables. Bear in mind, the following   Dos & Don’ts may not be applicable at all if the situation is different.

Dos & Don’ts:

  ·           
     1) First things first.

    Which you would do even if I don’t mention it here: REMEMBER YOUR GOD. It really                       helps;    the power of UNKNOWN is quite powerful

      2)Take a deep breath:

     Try to relax your senses, because the chance of walking out safely from a mishap is directly proportional to your ability to keep yourself cool in such circumstances. Don’t panic, more so because you already know that panicking will only make situations worse for you.

           3)Memorize a mobile no.

 I have a question. Do you remember the mobile no. of your best friend or spouse? If your answer is “no”, then please Know it from now onwards. Because, immediately after the attack you would like to talk to somebody who can make you feel secure. Isn’t it? But what would you do if criminals have seized your mobile? So, better memorize a number, which you can dial from some other mobile/telephone. Even during the attack if you get a chance to look at a number just before they snatch the mobile from you, please do so.

·         4)Never ever mention that you know any of them:

The attackers may become killers if they come to know that you know them even by a fraction of milligram . So just be quiet. Even if the person is your twin-brother don’t recognize him.

·         5) Don’t protest. 

 Remember your life is infinitely more valuable than the most precious diamond in the world. So, don’t protest, give the rogues whatever they want. I may sound “coward”, but I have heard of many “braves” who tried to play hero but are not even left alive to be called so. Look, you can always fight such people even after they have looted you. They have just started it; you can finish it off by getting them behind bars.

·         6) Think how you can help police to catch them later.

Keep your eyes and ears open, but don’t portray the same to the robbers. Try to listen to their conversation, if you can get some names, GREAT! See if you can memorize their Vehicle number, at least the last four digits. And also try to memorize the face of minimum one of them, preferably the leader. It will be handy in getting their sketch done to assist police.

  
7)Don’t keep quiet

You were quiet when it was required and that helped you walk away from the incident. Now, tell the world about the incident, blog it, e-mail it, SMS it, just spread the news.  I am doing the same right now, enriching you from my experience and knowledge. You really need to make others ALERT and indirectly help them to be prepared and cautious.  In India, many times we just don’t report the incident thinking, nothing is going to happen after all. But this is like running away from our responsibility. And, if we don’t do our duties, who will? ALWAYS INFORM THE POLICE.

The world is full of good and bad people. Let’s be prepared to meet the worst of them and  hope to meet the best of them, like we met today.

Always wishing for your health and safety. Take care!