I always took the sign ‘Park at your own risk’ for granted until recently when I experienced a robbery of a different kind. I went out with my sisters and brother to enjoy the lake breeze and the feel of sand beneath our feet at the beach; little did we know that we would return to almost nothing! The security guard opened the gate for us after searching the car to see if we had smuggled in drinks and eats. We even cracked a few jokes with him during the search and he let us in. I saw the ‘Park at your own risk’ sign in the parking lot like I have many times and did what I always do, ignored it. We then decided to leave our bags in the car since it would be locked. One of my sisters tried to take hers along and I told her it was foolish to carry around a big bag at the beach – something I still feel guilty about. I was in charge of keeping the bags. For security purposes, I got the bags and hid them below the backseats and covered them with jackets so as not to attract attention from passersby even though the car windows were tinted. After hiding the bags, I locked the car, set the alarm and joined the rest. We had a great time, I must say. About an hour or so later, we headed back to the car. On reaching the car, we opened it and got the shock of our lives. The bags were all gone. I swear at that moment, I toyed with the idea that someone was playing a prank on us. We called the manager and the security guard and they both said they had not seen anything or anyone that looked suspicious. It’s actually not the fact that we had been robbed that pissed me off; it was the annoying explanations that the security personnel made on the possibilities of the robbery. When we asked how one can rob a car with an alarm in a parking lot of not more than six cars and no one notices the robbery, they gave us vague excuses to say the least. I highly suspect they were involved. When we raised the issue a little more, they pointed at the sign ‘Park at your own risk’. I then realised that we should never take some information for granted. Even when we reported the matter to the police, nothing could be done about the situation because the sign was loud and clear. Some advice, never leave anything valuable in your car even if it has an alarm because there are many smart people out there who are ready to crack anything. The world is tough so not everyone sees ‘leaving your bags in the car’ as a smart thing to do.
