How safe is Greenhills?

Two nights ago, I saw a footage of the writer Isah Red being interviewed. His BMW was parked in the Greenhills Commercial Center and it had been broken into. The window was in smithereens and his laptop was gone, a Mac, I think.

How safe is Greenhills? Someone assured him they'd pay for the damage and lost laptop, but what about the files? Though if truth be told, Isah should have known better because laptops are easy prey for thieves. Along Katipunan fronting Blue Ridge is a laptop pawnshop. I find that really crude because somehow, while it serves a purpose -- for a student out of money who needs cash-- it also encourages the stealing of laptops. Ateneo students have been targets on campus. But what did I mean when I wrote Isah should have known better? Weeks back there was news of a young lady's laptop being taken from her car too. And the police have been warning the public against leaving valuables in the car.

But as Isah reasoned, "But this is a private place, there's a security guard outpost nearby so I thought it was safe." Perish the thought Isah.

Way back when my son was in Prep, maybe 11 or 12 years ago, our car was taken in Greenhills. Thank God not at knife or gunpoint, just taken. We were there to watch the Ateneo-sponsored premiere of Angels in the Outfield in the afternoon. After the movie, I asked the maid to leave the angel wings my son used when he was asked to go onstage. The maid also put in the helmet he wore, a cheap one but special because he had stuck several different kinds of stickers on it. Then we did the groceries.

When we went back to the car, the grocery boy with us, the car was no longer where we parked it. We thought we had mistakenly remembered - okay, forgotten-- where we had parked the car but we were certain, actually that we had parked it in that place (across Virra Mall) and it just wasn't there. It felt like a nightmare. I mean who'd want to steal a car that was then 20 years old, a Colt Galant that had been overhauled so many times yet refused to start with one click? It had to be pushed on occasion to run. Aghast, we went to the security office of Greenhills and to the police outpost nearby, yes nearby. The policeman there had a radio. They told us to go to San Juan police, which we did riding a white, Ilonggo taxi or something to do with my province. We filed a report, still incredulous. But we thanked our lucky stars that we weren't in it when the car was taken.

The parents of my husbands students offered to help, one of them was a colonel. He got the details, so did several others. nothing happened. two weeks later, I got a call from the Makati police. He asked for me and said the car had been found in the Quad carpark 3 days after we lost it. So why did it take them so long to call us? Who knows?

We told one of the parents of a student of my husband who has clout in Makati that the car had been found but we were scared to claim it as we might be asked for grease money, so she called her police friends to help us out. When we went to the police station, the policeman on duty chided us for seeking out this friend whose plice friend must have told them about us. He was needling me to admit I didn't trust them, which was true. I brought out my rosary and novenas because I wasn't sure how things would turn out. In the meantime, Bong Daza dropped by to give the police Jollibee foodstuff -- nothing to do with our case, just an aside. Ultimately, we got the car but its battery wasn't in it. We had brought a friend's mechanic along to make sure it would start and he saw the slot for the battery was empty. The police said they had removed the battery. What the...? Why on earth? Then they gave us back the battery -- it was small and white. Big deal. Of course it wasn't the car's but we let that pass. We wanted to leave the police station as quickly as possible, no point arguing.

Up till now we have no idea who took the car. Also we wonder why the person/persons who took it left it in Quad? One thought, maybe it refused to start. (My husband thinks, maybe the thieves were in cahoots with the Greenhills police and were told the owner was a disabled person so pity her.) Also, why did they get such an old car to steal? How stupid. Why didn't they choose a newer, more plush car? Silly. Imagine, had they been caught, they'd have been punished for taking such a not-worth stealing car. Amateurs? Or were they planning to use it for some dastardly act?

Oh and the angel's wings were still there, but not my son's helmet. Sadly...