I'm still trying to upload the pictures on the Germany trip,
hopefully it'll be up by tomorrow
I was ambushed in my sleep at 0930hrs by a suprise visitor
Joel Han from Chicago came down to London!!!
Joel is another of our church mate back in Singapore
and I'm really very happy to see him here in London
He went off shortly to meet his RI-RJ friends
to explore central London
The rest of the day for me was spent resting,
trying to get back on to life in London
At 1900hrs, while I was on my way to OCF,
A car pulled over right in front of me, wind down the window
and asked me 'Excuse me, I'm lost, can you please tell me where I am?'
I tried to tell the driver where he was with my limited knowledge.
I knew how to get him out by my own directions but not on the map he showed me.
thus, I volunteered to jump into his car and help him out to the main roads.
Later, he told me he was heading to Heathrow airport to catch a flight back to L.A
We had a small conversation in the car
Driver: Where are you from?
A.S: Singapore, I'm doing an exchange here for 6 mths
Driver: My dad has a few business contacts in Singapore. He designs the Lambogini
as well as the Maseratis
A.S (eyes lit up) : Is that right? Cool. Where are you from?
Driver: I'm born in Italia, but I stay in L.A.
I came for a business trip to bring sample
designs like Armani and Versace to the distributors
to vet before bringing them in.
A.S: So how was your time in London?
Driver: You know last night I went for a party at Soho,
I spent a night with one of the ladies in the pub
and when I woke up this morning, my wallet was missing
All my credit cards and money was lost
A.S: I'm sorry about that
(Next few minutes was spent giving him directions)
Driver: By the way, can I ask a favour from you? This car that I'm driving
is rented from Heathrow airport and I need to pay for it, but
I don't have any cash on me now.
A.S: Can you show me the receipt of your car rental
(It was written in black and white 350 pounds)
A.S: How can I trust you that you will return me the money?
To cut the long story short, I took down the following information from him
1. His e-mail
2. His address
3. His I/C no. (Which i saw with my own eyes)
4. His Name
5. His Dad's number
(I spoke to his Dad on the phone and when I told him I was from Singapore, he said the same thing as he did 'I had a few business contacts in SG... I am the.....)
After all that, I was kind of convince that his information was credible.
I went off the car and took out 300 pounds (Max frm bank limit for the day)
and fished out another 10 pounds and 100 euros from my wallet and gave it to him
Before I left the car, I said 'Marc, I'm a Christian, can i just pray for you?'
and so I did...
He handed me a bag of jackets and insisted that
I take it as a gift because he couldn't take them up
on the plane or he'll be taxed.
Before he drove off, I took a last glance at the car and took down the
car plate number
During the whole OCF meeting, I felt very worried
and uneasy. There was this big feeling of
'What if this guy was a con-man?'
I didn't think so much of that after OCF as
it was Joel's last night in London
Gordon and I made double sure that he enjoys
a feast supper with us before he leaves for the U.S
It was a great time that we had together
After I returned to my room, I immediately
send an e-mail to the driver
BUT...
The e-mail was bounced back with a failure message
I tried other possible combinations of the e-mail
but to no avail
I also tried dialing the number of his father's handphone,
there was no way I could get through after multiple
trial and errors of different area codes of Italy and Los Angeles
I typed in the address he gave me in L.A.
It was correct, but was a general area w/o specific location
of his house
By then, I knew I have invited trouble to myself...
I can only rely on 2 concrete details now..
1. His I/C no.
2. The car plate number I took
Man, Am I stupid or what? What have I gotten myself into?
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