On Guard

Early last year, there was a spate of break-in at Taman Setia, forcing the residence to band together and employ the local RELA troupe to act as security guard full time. As a result, the entrance were blockers and card were issued with stickers and those without them were given visitors pass to come in. Since then, the number of break-in has been cut down to a big fat nil, even though somebody did try to jack our car parked outside last months. Luckily, the alarm went off and the thieve we're sent scampering.

However a couple of weeks after that, my brother's house at Taman Cemerlang which was right next to ours, was broken into. He was away overseas and we did not actually stay there. As a result, a lot of things went missing, and we only realized that the property were entered a few days after. In the weekend following that, the neighbours reported suspicious activities going on around the area especially during weekends. Last week, we got a cousin of ours to stay there until we got a permanent solution.

We decided in the end to employ security guards for both houses, and the contract started tonight. We spent half an hour orientating the guards about what to do, as well as giving them a set of keys for the gate. We were hoping that they would be no more attempts from now on, as we still have some stuffs, mainly our old clothes and things from the UK still at the house. Even though they were not that expensive, but the thought of somebody entering your properties never rested easy on my mind.

Tale of the Garang Pak Guard

Kelby Walk 34 - Tools, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

UM has been trying to tighten up its security for the past couple of years. Back in 06, there was a security incident that put the establishment in a bit of bother. One Saturday morning, a few robbers managed to drag away a teller machine from the student union building and got away with plenty of cash. Apparently they came in posing as contractors and using some heavy equipment managed to drag the whole machine out.

Since then, many measures were taken to tighten things up, but none were really implemented. From this Friday, all cars entering the campus has to have a sticker, otherwise, the driver will part away from their RM50 notes ..... and that is steep I thought. I got another 3 days and just did not have the time to get myself the stickers. The parking office is only open from 8 to 5, and there is no way that I'm driving away to the other side of the campus, losing my parking spot along the way!

I drove in this morning and was stopped by the security guard. I didn't have my stickers. Stern words were exchanged. Apparently from now on, undergrads are not allowed cars in campus. The final years were exempted. I was given warning to get my stickers sorted out. It looked like I will have to start my morning round late. I emailed a suggestion for the parking office to close late, maybe until 6.30 for the next couple of days so that people like me are able to get the stickers sorted out. I am yet to receive a reply. They just need to work the extra hours for the next couple of days I thought .....

p/s: The pic above was taken last weekend during my photowalk, somewhere in Kampung Baru.