Survival guide : Stolen vehicles

After spending a couple of hours twiddling our thumbs at the Centurion Police satelite station vehicle clearance centre at the testing centre, my little car is no longer on the stolen list! After all the phoning around and just about speaking to every single police officer in the area we're done...until it happens again that is.

A few observations for those poor sods who ever get caught up in the Stolen Vehicle Twilight Zone :

1) Expect to stand in loooooong queues.
2) Expect to be treated worse than a criminal if you are white (yes, I know, I should stop being so damn sensitive and give some black people in this country a chance but when you are spoken to and treated as if you're a piece of shit on the bottom of someone's shoe just because of the colour of your skin, then the Rainbow Nation is not so Rainbow anymore now is it?)
3) Expect to be sent from one department to the other with no one knowing what it is you are supposed to do.
4) Make copies of EVERYTHING! Including the police file if you can.
5) Get everyone's name, telephone number and superior's details. It helps.
6) Make multiple copies of your ID book and the car vehicle registration papers.
7) Take a book, bottle of water and something to snack on, it's a long wait.
8) If you have a recording option on your cell phone, USE IT!
9) Be nice, nice is good. It doesn't help you shout and scream obscenities at the people you encounter along the way. Sometimes they really don't know how to help you and shouting at them just makes it worse.
10) Be prepared, keep 11tybillion pens and pencils in your handbag or car.

Above all, be vigilant, try not to be a victim of a crime. Sucks but that is the reality.

Aftermath

After the police, security company and neighbourhood watch arrived on Thursday, Himself contacted a security specialist friend. He in turn contacted someone and they used my cellphone to triangulate the direction the hijackers took. My car was found about 45 minutes after the incident, safely parked and locked near a centre in Tembisa.

Of course, my wallet containing my drivers licence, ID document, cards and cash, my handbag and a few other things were no longer in the car. They even took the school lunch bags I pack for J&C. Their school bags with school books were still in the boot, which they never opened.

Even though we got the car back and the kids could go to school on Friday with their own school bags, our lives will never be the same.

Even though I am going to see a trauma counselor, I will probably never feel safe.

Even though my children seem fine on the surface, they now know that all those promises we as parents make are not true. We can't keep them safe all the time.