Lost and found
Ordinarily, a story like this one on New York Times would not have meant anything if we had not lost some of our own belongings. Countless number of people, I guess, connected with this situation — such as of the person who lost her cellphone, and much like our own.
When my wife lost her belongings in a Jusco mall in Maluri in September 2004, our main concern was passports. We weren’t even thinking about the phone. There were three passports in her bag. Of kids and hers. And Singapore resident passes! Losing a passport with a valid visa for an expatriate is a nightmare in a foreign country.
I am told by my Malaysian colleagues that losing a Malaysian passport is a major headache. Especially with regards to getting a new passport in lieu of the lost one. Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur almost immediately issued my kids’ new passports. My wife’s records were sent to India for verification, and by the book, she got hers in about 20 10 days. If there is one thing that I remember about the High Commission, it is this amazing promptness.
My office didn’t even sweat in getting fresh visas issued for the new passports. Such wonderful service.
We never got the phone, or the petty cash in it, but something good happened. A honest Malay man called me and informed me that he had found my wife’s abandoned bag in Rawang [a town at about an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur city], and that it contained some documents that might be important to us. I gave him my office address. He said he was visiting Kuala Lumpur with his family, and that he’d be happy to drop the stuff off.
Sure enough, he came by my office and handed over my wife’s bag with all contents in it. There were even our Singapore resident passes in it — all intact. All except the cellphone.
The man refused to take anything from me, but I pursuaded his wife to take some cash and buy toys for his kids. I was much grateful for their help and the trouble taken. There are some wonderful people out there, you know. And there’s always hope.
Following the Times story, I am now thinking about how I could have possibly retrieved the phone, if at all. Unlike, American cellphone service providers, the service is not tied to the phone. In the story, the victim was able to track the thief partly due to her stupidity and in part because the service was backing-up stuff from the phone to their servers.
In Malaysia, most provide a prepaid service where, until recently, even registration was entirely optional. You just have to insert a new SIM and you’re ready to go.
In our case, we could have — at best — used the cellphone lock. I am not sure if it would have worked. In fact, we tried to call our cellphone, but I guess the SIM was already removed. And, since all instructions have to[?] go through the SIM, there’s not much you can do if the thief is clever enough to remove it immediately upon getting hold of the phone.
We still ponder if we could have done anything at all. Any cellphone gurus with a piece of advice for us [other than "don't lose it :)"]?