This Woman Was Robbed By A Man With Parang In Front Of Her House In TTDI
"Stay out of this, or we’ll get you too."
By Nandini Balakrishnan — 11 Oct 2016, 01:26 PM
A young woman was robbed right in front of her house last week, on 5 October.
Hai Lin Lee recounted her harrowing experience in a Facebook post, detailing the incident.
It was a little before 11pm when Hai Lin was just got home from an orchestra rehearsal on Wednesday, 5 October.
"I parked my car directly in front of my gate. Exiting the car, I opened the back door to retrieve my violin from the back seat. It was then that I felt someone yank me from behind," read the post.
"Before I knew it, I felt a hard, cold object on my skin – first behind my neck and then on my arm when I turned around and cowered.
A skinny, dark skinned male wearing a motorcycle helmet with bloodshot eyes and a foul stench to him was holding a parang to me."
Terrified, Hai Lin realised that there was another man on a motorcycle, about 3 meters across the road.
The man with the parang snatched her keys and phone and loosened his grip on her. Wanting to make a run for it, she tried to escape by running towards her front gate, only to remember that the robber has her keys.
Right at that moment, she realised that her sling cloth bag had fallen on the ground, she quickly kicked it under the car as the robbers weren't looking.
Fearing her safety, she started shouting for help. One of her neighbours who was in the garden heard her screams and threatened to call the police.
"Dude on the bike yelled in Malay 'Stay out of this, or we’ll get you too'," explained Hai Lin.
That didn't stop her neighbour from calling the police while shouting at the robber. He did however, keep his gates closed to protect his family.
Suddenly, the man with the parang approached Hai Lin, eyeing her precious violin which she was desperately trying to protect.
Right when reached out to grab it from her, instead of resisting or using violence, Hai Lin pleaded saying, "Please, don't. Please, don't. Not that".
Thankfully, her husband heard the commotion too and rushed out to help her
"As the robber was mounting the motorbike, Kheong grabbed the instrument by the strap, pulling it away from him. All this happened whilst the other robber kept yelling 'Potong dia, potong dia (cut him, cut him)'."
Her husband managed to grab her violin and they both ran into another neighbour's house and stayed there till the robbers sped off.
"Why am I recapping this horrific incident on Facebook when all I want to do is to forget it ever happened?"
"People need to know, the state of what our country and the people in it has become. And we need to fight it. Not by violence – but through intelligence, community collaboration and spirit."
Hai Lin spoke about we shouldn't live in a state of fear, constantly looking over our shoulders for any signs of danger.
"I personally do not want to live a life filled with constant fear and paranoia. Is it not unreasonable to expect to walk 5 meters to one’s front door without incident, in a secured residential area? What kind of people does it make us, when our automatic reaction is to regard other people as threats? As a good friend aptly put it- ‘It makes us people under siege. Suspicious and paranoid people.’ That is no way to live life," said Hai Lin.
Hai Lin ended her post with a valuable piece of advice about battling against crime and living in a community
"So talk to your neighbours, not because you may need them someday but because we need each other (and it’s generally a nice thing to do)."
She explained that we need to think of all the possible things to do, just in case it happens to us or anyone around us.
The biggest take back for me, which I want to share with you, would have to be: We must do our part, or evil will continue to thrive," said Hai Lin.