Snatching of gold chains is a common feature in all places irrespective of whether it is a city or a village. The general practice followed by the chain
snatchers is to travel either in the bikes or such vehicles, snatch the chain
and escape. Snatching gold chains of bus passengers by cutting is also common.
Recently, I had an experience of chain snatching. One day I was
waiting at the bus stand for going to my office. Then one bus came which was almost jam-packed. Even
though I was reluctant to board it, one man well dressed and seemed to me a gentleman from the appearance,
called me from inside the bus telling that there is enough space in the
bus. On his insistence I boarded the bus
and started travelling by standing. He
was in his late fifties who was soft-spoken and looked an amiable person. As soon as I got inside the bus he has
engaged me in constant talk about things
irrelevant to the context. I tried to go to the backside of the bus he did not allow me to proceed to the backside
telling there was no space there. After
5-6 minutes of my boarding, another person seated near to me immediately got up
and tried to disembark the bus from my right side when he could have done so
from my left side very easily. In the
process he deliberately pressed me hard as if he is freeing himself from the rush.
In the melee I got little perplexed and shouted at him why he cannot
disembark from my left side . In the
meantime, that ‘gentleman’ who has
invited to the bus put his sweater over my head covering my face fully
pretending to be accidental. Thereupon I
raised my voice and shouted at him, as
to what are they upto? Then it struck me
that the artificial rush and covering my head with the sweater are all part of a well
hatched plan to snatch my gold chain.
I became conscious
of what is in the store for me and tried to regain my mental composure and
searched for the gold chain shouting at
the high pitch of my voice to allow me to stand properly. Meanwhile that person who got up and pressed
me hard jumped from the bus. My shouting
made the other ‘gentleman’ panic as he became
suspicious that I have realized their game plan of
snatching the chain. He told me not to get tense and made me to sit on a seat
by making another person to stand. Immediately thereafter he also got out of the
bus. Then I searched for the chain and
found that it is there. However, when I
pulled the chain it came out and to my utter disbelief I found that it is cut
into two. All these things took place in
10-15 minutes.
What I presume is since I have become self-conscious
about what is going to happen and regained my mental concentration and
composure, I did not lose the gold chain
which was valued approximately Rs.52,000/-?.
Possibly the person who pressed me hard while getting out of the bus must
have cut the chain and it must have been the responsibility of the other ‘gentleman’ to remove the same which
could not be put into practice. I still do not know how I was able to regain
my mental composure and concentration at that juncture. It was nothing but sheer
luck.
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