Mobile Snatching In Pakistan (My Story)

Mobile snatching has become a really big problem in Pakistan, since the last few years it has increased tremendously. People are afraid to use their cell phones on the streets, they all have the fear of getting it snatched away, that's why many
people don't buy expensive smart phones these days in Pakistan. My closest friend had got his cell phone stolen more than 5 times last year and now after experiencing it so many times he now says "These cell phones that we keep really belong to them (snatchers), we just keep it warm for them till they take it back". I think what my friend says is kinda true because almost every person in Pakistan or at least in Karachi has got his/her mobile phone stolen. This happened to me as well.

It was a Sunday night, me, my two brothers and my mom and dad were driving back from a wedding, it was about 12:00 AM and the electricity was out as well so it was dark, we parked our car outside the main gate of our house, that's when suddenly two men in a motorcycle stopped their bike in front of our car, at that moment we didn't know what was going on, my dad quickly stepped out of the car and asked the men what was wrong, then both of the men took out their pistols and shouted "Take out all of your phones and jewelry or else we'll shoot you". We had a total of six cell phones in the car, one of my brother had two cell phones, one was a cheap one and the other was an expensive one, my second brother had a very expensive phone too, me and my mom and dad both had cheap phones. In short we had about 85,000 PKR worth of mobile phones in the car. As my dad was the first one to step out of the car, the thieves robbed him first, they took my dad's cell phone and wallet (luckily he didn't have any money in it), then they went towards my mom and took her necklace (it wasn't of much value but it looked expensive). Thankfully some people were passing by, the robbers got scared and ran away. As soon as they went we called the police and filed a complaint but they never got caught, I even gave them their bike's license plate number but still they were'nt able to  find 'em. But in the end we were all fine and only faced a loss of about 3,000 PKR.

After this incident we found out that the CPLC (Citizens Police Liaison Committee) can track down your stolen cell phone and retrieve it back, they will ask you some questions including your phones IMEI number which you can find on the box of your phone. If any of you have gotten your cell phone stolen please block you sim card and file a complaint against the theft. You can even fill out an online mobile theft complaint at  http://www.cplc.org.pk/