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Dubai is really no longer safe as it used to. We already heard a lot of stories about burglary, kidnapping, snatching, rape, etc.… Here’s another incident of hold-up in Dubai .

I just want to share the incident that happened to my roommate the other night (20th April, around 12:30am).

He went out our room in Satwa at midnight to buy medicine and withdraw money from the ATM machine in New West Zone Supermarket. Upon going out, he was tapped on the shoulder by an Arab looking person wearing a brown candura. With an Arabic accent, the person asked for the ID of my roommate. The Arab person posed as a CID (undercover police). While pulling out ID from his wallet, my roommate was forced by the guy in candura to get inside a dark colored large sedan car. When he got in, he realized that they were not real CID and they got him for a hold up. There were five of them, the driver, one passenger seated in front and 3 others seated with him at the back seat. The one seated in front pointed a jungle knife to him while they force him to surrender his wallet. He refused at first so he was punched in the face twice, one below his right eye and one on his jaw. He suffered bruises in the face and had a broken tooth. He had no choice but to surrender his wallet and cellphone. They were driving along Jumeirah and went to gas up in a petrol station. He was not able to ask for help because of the knife pointed to him and they can’t be seen inside because of the dark tint. The hold-uppers inspected all the bank cards in his wallet and asked for the pin number of his NBD card. Due to his fear, he gave his ATM pin number. He was asked how much is in his account. He told the hold-uppers that there’s only 15dhs left. To make sure, they drove to Emirates Bank ATM machine in Satwa near the big Mosque. While parked and one checking on the ATM, they played loud music in the car probably to cover up the noise and avoid hold-up suspicion of passersby. The one who checked his account in the ATM machine confirmed that he has only 15dhs left. After that they drove to Al Quoz area.. While on the way, he was being interviewed like where he work and how much his salary is. My roommate heard that he’s going to be killed in Al Quoz so he pleaded for his life. He asked for pity from the hold-uppers. He said that he just went out to buy medicine because he’s not feeling well and he has family in the Philippines expecting for his support. He asked the hold-uppers to just drop him somewhere, anyway they already took his money. He asked if he could have his cellphone but the hold-uppers just gave back the sim card. The hold-uppers still showed mercy by letting him go instead of killing him. When he got off from the car, he was asked to run. That was somewhere in the dark part, inside streets of Satwa/Wasl area. He just ran and didn’t look back for he was afraid he might be killed. When the car is far enough, he tried to look for the plate number but it was covered with a dark cloth. My roommate was not able to identify the type, model and color of car because it was dark. The color of the car could be dark blue, gray or black. While inside the car he was not allowed to look on their faces and the one seated in front covers the car’s dashboard so he was not able to get the car brand. My roommate can only describe the kidnappers/hold- uppers to be in their 20's.

After the incident, he went to the police station to report what happened to him and he had a medical report for the bruises in his face. He was asked to come back to the police station for his statement because according to those at the station, the police on duty when the time the incident happened are no longer on duty.

The hope to catch the culprits is with the help of the CCTV camera on Emirates Bank’s ATM machine. Hopefully that transaction was recorded.

My roommate is a manager of a fast food chain in a mall, he usually carries their store money. Good thing he was not carrying it that time he was held-up. Only, all of his personal money was taken from him.

For those who didn’t know yet, if you are being held-up and asked to withdraw money from the ATM, you can reverse the order of your pin number, for example your pin number is 1-2-3-4, you can put in 4-3-2-1. You will still be able to do a regular transaction but the police is already being alerted without the hold-upper knowing it. My roommate doesn’t know about this. I know about this but I might also not remember to do this if the situation is there and if I’m traumatized.

May this be another reminder to everyone to be careful and vigilant because Dubai is no longer safe as it used to be.

FTD wrote:Seems like the start of an urban myth