Crime, Logic & Evidence

I've been robbed. Thrice. Within the past 2 months. Altogether it's an estimated total of RM2,600 cash. And all within my room.

I have a tendency to hide money. The first time I remembered doing it was when I was in my pre-teens, when I collected all my coins and hid them under my doll house's hollow floor. After that, I kept keeping whatever extra money I got in a big purse that my mom bought for me. Then I started finding less obvious hiding places and that's how it started. I once had about RM5,000 hidden around until I finally put it in the bank. It's kinda fun to find back money you've forgotten about.

Anyway, about the robbery...

It all started the night before I went off on my trip to Lang Tengah back in September. I remember taking some money from one of my hiding places and if I'm not mistaken, I put the rest of the cash back (I always arrange my hiding places back to its original position after checking on them). However, I only noticed the money was missing a week after that. Nothing else was amissed, except for the ring my boyfriend gave me. Even my gold necklace was left intact.

At first, I thought I misplaced that batch of money and I started a new batch when I received my salary. Same location, different area. This time, since I suspected my brother's new maid is the thief, I checked on the money everyday. However, being so busy with work, there were two or three nights in a row when I came back and went straight to bed. I only noticed that this batch of money was missing on the morning of Hari Raya, and this time, the thief left a physical mark on my hiding place.

At this point in time, I was positive that it was the maid. Why? Because one of the days when I did not check my money, the maid was left in the house alone for almost an hour. When I told my mom about the second batch of stolen money, my mom said, "Maybe it's a toyol (a child spirit that is used by those who practice spiritual magic)." To which, I could only stare at my mom incredulously with my mouth opened and retorted, "Mak, there's no toyol during Ramadhan!" (in Muslim belief, during Ramadhan, all spirits, ghosts, demons, etc are locked up, leaving only humans to roam the world, thus the thief must be human).

To be fair, I considered the possibility that a robber had entered the house. But why steal only money? Why not my gold? And why only my room? And if it was a robber, why isn't my room in a mess the first time I got robbed? This shows it was an inside job. Someone who has time to go through every inch of my room. Thus, the conclusion is, of course, the maid.

However, we couldn't very well accuse her without any proof or evidence. My brother set a hidden webcam in my room while he and his wife turned his house upside-down to search for the money. We never found the money.

Yesterday was the breaking point in my robbery. I was given a stack of RM50s and I wrote down each note's serial number. Then, listening to my instinct, I hid part of the money in my first hiding place and the rest in my second hiding place, both previous areas which were robbed. As usual, the webcam was set and we left it to God. Imagine my surprise when my brother called me in the middle of my busy afternoon that very day to urgently whisper that the thief struck again.

It was my gardener.

Caught on video, he came into my room, rifled through my pillows and climbed my bed to reach my linen closet, which was where the money was hidden. The way he moved shows that he knew exactly what he was looking for and where. He never went anywhere else in my room after that. He took the money and left. The time of robbery recorded was after one o'clock in the afternoon, after he had finished doing the gardening at my house. He comes to do the gardening every Thursday and now that I noticed, the days I did not check my money always consist a Thursday. And at the time of robbery, my mom, aunt, grandmother and maid were downstairs in the hallway, eating lunch. That was how bold he was, most likely because of his first two successful attempts.

We had no choice but to report him to the police, even though his family has been working for us for years. He is now in lock-up at Brickfields, awaiting release. When my brother first saw the footage, his first thought was that the robber was a ghost, an orang minyak, since he was so dark. Then my brother thought the man was still in the house, hidden, because I told my brother that I kept hearing noises from the ceiling. My mom was the one who identified the thief.

It's sad when someone you trust destroys the relationship you have built up over time. What is even sadder is that my mom has always treated this gardener kindly. Yesterday, before he left, my mom even gave him RM50 for Deepavali.

As for me, I feel bad because of my suspicions to the maid. The weird thing was, the night before the recent robbery, I was talking to my mom. I told her that part of me says it's her but another part of me looks at her and says that she's too... pure (?) to be a thief. My brother himself has tested her integrity many times, leaving money all over the house to see if she would take them. Circumstantial evidence points to her as she was the only one around but there were no physical evidence. The only question that kept popping into our heads was 'How could she have known my hiding place when she has only just arrived at our house a couple of days ago?' It's like what Grissom from CSI said, "First opinions are crucial, but if the evidence changes, so must the theory."

My money will be reimbursed by the gardener's uncle and the boy will no longer be working for us. We still keep our gardening contract with the uncle as he and his family are really good people. After settling the matter with his uncle, we are dropping charges and are seeking to release the boy next week so that he can celebrate Deepavali with his family. As for the reason behind his robbery and his method of entering, we are still in the dark but will find out as soon as we can question him.