Fortunate Fortuner

I still remember that late Friday in April. That evening, I went home early, it was cell night. Dad stayed back at the office. I had just finished dinner when dad called. He sounded distressed and was breathing heavily. His car was missing from the office parking basement! It was a brand new Toyota Fortuner. (Yeah the cruel irony of the car's name being Fortuner haha) I remember telling myself "Oh no, here we go again". Our family had the unfortunate experience of loosing a vehicle. Just six years ago we lost our Ford Ranger right in front of our house. It was towed away. Anyways, thankfully pops himself was alright. I told him to calm down and be careful just in case the thieves were still around. I gave a quick shout to my mom about the car as I sped off to the office. She was in the bathroom and kinda freaked out TVB drama style. (quite funny now that I think about it. Heheh=) Dad and I searched the whole basement and office area head to toe. We weren't expecting to find it but we had to try anyways. Later that night we lodged a police report at the Kelana Jaya police station. Apparently we weren't the only recent victims...in fact our office security guards were actually aware of these thefts and yet they didn't take any precautionary measures to prevent it from happening again. So much for what's left of our trust in them.

We went home late, tired, hungry and with a mix of emotions from angry to glum. If anything good came out of this episode, it was our family & relatives' caring attitudes in time of need. My dad was very touched that throughout our little family's ordeal, we urgently pulled together to help out, gave comfort, consoled & cheered him up. Many concerned relatives called up from our Ipoh hometown to England to US.

Then in mid-May we got a very surprising & unexpected news. Dad's Fortuner turned out to be quite fortunate after all. During a raid on the seaport in Singapore, the Singaporean police recovered several stolen vehicles, inclusive of our Fortuner, ready to be shipped off in large containers to Dubai! Imagine that! However the thieves got away. The very fact that they intended to fully export these vehicles to another country meant that our car was harmlessly still in one piece instead of being taken apart like Lego. Truly a blessing. Aside from some scratches, a cut steering wheel and missing side mirror, our Fortuner was in pretty good shape. Though it would take an additional 3 months for our car to be fully repaired & returned to us due to the long queue of recovered cars at the Toyota workshop, our insurance has fully covered all the expenses involved.

All in all I thank God for guiding my family through it all. Looking back, I believe I gained something from that experience, though obviously not monetarily, but rather a stronger sense of trust in God & assurance that even though life can't always be in my hands, it doesn't always have to be. Sometimes when we can only do so much, we have to learn to leave the rest to God. Faith & works.