A pickpocket outsmarted me!

This happened when I was still in college. It happened one late hot afternoon when I rode a jeep going home from school to my apartment. The jeep route that I was usually taking is from Estrada st. (near Taft ave.) going to Paco palengke, which will pass by Quirino ave. (my drop off point). I thought my friend, who happens to share the same apartment with me, will go home with me but apparently she had to run some errands in school.

On the jeep, I pulled my cellphone from my bag and began texting her. I was very carefree at that time not minding how dangerous it was, showing off my cellphone to everybody in the jeep. Some of these people were wearing filthy sandos and shorts, their skins were chocolate brown, and some of them really smelled so awful! In short, they were the typical jeepney riders.

When the jeep turned left, I noticed a big dark guy - wearing white polo shirt and jeans - got inside the jeep. Minutes later, I saw him staring at me and then at my cellphone. At first, I just ignored him because I thought he was just fascinated with me.

And then when the passenger on my left got off from the jeep, this big dark guy just sat beside me where the passenger who just got off was sitting seconds ago. I began to be bothered with what was going on because there was still a big space on the other side of the jeep where he was originally sitting, while on our side, there was not enough space for sitting.

I tried not to worry. Instead, I pulled again my cellphone to reply to my friend's text message and then I put it back in my bag. Moments later, the big dark guy dropped off so quickly and I saw him running as he stepped onto the ground. And then I thought of my cellphone. I saw the zipper of my bag half open and my heart stopped. I searched for my cellphone, even in the bag's side pockets but my cellphone was nowhere to be found! I suddenly felt my blood rushing to my brain! Quite obviously, that stupid bastard stole my cellphone! I never thought that the reason he was staring at me is because he was observing me. And I never thought that the reason he moved beside me is that it was his strategy. Suddenly, I remembered that that cellphone was my parent’s gift. I really felt so stupid about what happened even until now.

After few days, I chatted with our neighbor and she said that her phone was just stolen a week ago. When she was describing to me the pickpocket, it happened to be the same person who stole my phone. Our neighbor said that around our vicinity, there are many pock pockets, burglars and muggers. There had been many police reports regarding this matter but it seemed that they can not take some action and they can not reinforce safety. Well I guess the only safety measure that I could do is to not show-off my cellphone in any public vehicle OR not stay around that vicinity again.

-Jen Espinosa