Another Wave of Carjacking
Last week, everyone was talking about the latest high profile carjacking incident that involved the parents of actor/model Derek Ramsay.
The incident happened right in front of the actor’s house. The thieves took their vehicle forcibly and subsequently used the vehicle to further their carjacking activities.
I’m not the panicky type of driver but this really really scares me. These are not mere carnapping incidents anymore. They involve gun-toting thieves and they happen in broad daylight…right about the time when most of us are all driving. And they don’t choose areas anymore. They don’t strike in dark, empty allies. The incidents happen in front of houses and in parking lots.
Ever since this fresh wave of carjacking incidents I have been on guard. In the past when I would bring my kids to school, I would sit in the car while their yaya would go down with them. I would simply lock the door and wait. This was because the kids didn’t want me to go with them. It was quote, “embarassing”, to have their Mom take them to their classroom.
Now I never stay in the car until I have to. I go down with the kids even if they don’t want to be seen with their Mom. I walk until the gate and see them off and wait until there is a wave of people going to their cars. As much as possible I don’t go alone. I’d rather be caught in a little bit of foot traffic as well as vehicle traffic instead of risking the possibility of being caught off-guard by a roving carjacker because I happened to be alone.
Anyway, since I’m at it, I also started reinforcing the house. Lets face it, folks, when carjackers strike, the “akyat bahay gang” will not be far behind. I made sure that all our door locks are secure and I installed new ones as well. I’m thinking of getting a motion detector…if we can afford it.
You can never be too safe. And too paranoid.
I Actually Went To Congress!! What?!?
Believe it or not, this apolitical, tsismis loving, “i’d rather watch E than CNN” citizen actually hauled her ass to Congress to witness the joint house canvassing of COC’s the other day. I can’t believe it myself.
Sure I was there for people watching. And sure I got a huge kick out of seeing those gorgeous South American hunks from Smartmatic. Wink wink. Truth be told, my sister and I trained our camera lenses on those dudes more than we did on the proceedings. Hehehe.
But as the hours passed, I found myself engrossed in what those senators and tong-gressmen where saying. It bothered me that there was more talk than action. The oft said, “We will not sacrifice accuracy for speed.” began to sound like an insult to my sensibilities because those idiots were actually delaying the opening of those ballot boxes. Yep, they were all grandstanding. Several of them seemed to vying for airtime. Hey, all the TV networks had their ace reporters in the media section so putting in more lip service meant some time on the primetime news.
After 4 hours of watching endless volleying of the same issues, I decided that it was time to go. I figured that there would be no opening of any ballot boxes. And I was right. As of press time, they have already opened several from the overseas voting centers.
Am I going back, absolutely. We plan to go on the last day when things get really exciting. I didn’t get to see the first ballot box opened, I want to see the last.
