Someone Nearly Killed Me!

Someone nearly killed me, but still I live to tell the tale. This verse from the bible stands out - "For he will command his angels to guard you in all your ways." - Psalms 91:11

This could happen to any motorist anywhere. There are unscrupulous people who wait in prey for their victims.

This was a true incident that happened to me like this:

I was on my way from my house to the outskirts of the city at about 9 o'clock in the morning of a working weekday. As usual, the roads were busy at this time of the morning. Cars were queuing and moving slowly while motorcyclists weave their way in and out between the cars.

I was happily driving my car when someone on a motorcycle frantically waved and indicated to me from my passenger's side that there was something wrong with the car.

Suspecting something amassed, I turned into a side road and stopped at a petrol station and I got down from the car to inspect what was wrong.

To my horror, I saw the hub of my front left tire covered with reddish oil. A large quantity of brake fluid had leaked out. I knew that if there was a leak at my brakes, it would be extremely dangerous to drive on without fixing it.

The same motorcyclists, the driver and the pillion rider, were also at the scene and they seemed like being concerned for me that my car had developed an oil leak at my tire. They were Indians. They described to me how the tire was producing smoke and how some other passing cars also tried to attract my attention to the abnormal condition of my car.

They asked for my car jack and tools which I dug out from my car. As the petrol station was quite congested, they suggested that it would be better to go to his workshop, which I unsuspectingly agreed. I guess I was not my usual self at that moment.

With my brakes half working, I drove on following the motorcyclist, ever ready to use the hand brake if needed. We stopped at a public parking lot, and the younger Indian asked me to be at the steering wheel to turn the wheel left to enable him to check the leak.

However, when I had got down from the car, I saw he had already dismantled the disc brake actuating mechanism and he even told me that he had checked the hydraulic hose and it was still in good condition. He said the actuating mechanism had to be pressure tested at the workshop. When I hesitated, he said it was up to me to agree whether to let him take it to the workshop for testing or not.

I was caught helpless at that moment. The unit had been dismantled, and I knew that the hydraulic brake fluid had been drained out. And I did not know how to fix it back. The car was immobilized. He took the part away for testing in his motorcycle.

All this while, I was still thinking that he was a Good Samaritan who happened to notice oil leaks from my car tire and had stopped along his journey to help me.

So I waited at the parking lot together with his assistant, the pillion rider, for a while. While waiting, the assistant received a call on his hand phone which he passed to me. A voice asked me in Chinese what the model and the year of built of my car was. This sounded like somebody from the spare parts shop.

Then the motorcyclist came back, showed me the replacement spare part, which he said needed to be replaced, and a receipt for the purchase (with 3 year guarantee) and then fixed the item back, including filling up and priming the brake hydraulic line. The spare part looked genuine enough.

Then he took me for a test drive, assured me that everything had been fixed properly and then we stopped at a bank ATM machine so that I could withdraw money to pay him for the spare part and his labor. It was quite a lot of money that I had to pay him but which I considered was quite reasonable on viewing the item and the trouble that he had to seemingly go through in procuring and transporting it.

And so I continued on my journey, thankful that no serious accidents had happened to me or my car. I shuddered to imagine what could have happened if I were driving at high speeds on the highway and found that I could not brake. It would have cost me my life!

However, on looking back at the incident, I had begun to realize that I had been duped and had become a victim of unscrupulous people who thought nothing of causing accidents to others as long as they could profit from it.

Being trained in mechanical engineering, I simply could not believe that the hydraulic brake fluid could simply leak out suddenly like this. It would mean that the engineering design was faulty and the car maker would have known about this from their testing. The previous day, I had been out of town, and my car was working perfectly all the while.

Then I realized that the night before, while I was driving pass the security guard post to my apartment, there was a single Indian motorcyclist who overtook me. He was going into another apartment block so I did not notice anything amiss. However, as my car moved on to the main road to another apartment block - some apartment blocks were not linked - I noticed that he was moving out from his apartment block and he traveled ahead of me. This was also normal because sometimes there were motorcyclists moving around like that, perhaps searching for the correct apartment block he was looking for. But I noticed that after I had parked my car, the same motorcyclist came back in the opposite direction to where I was. Then again, this was also normal as sometimes people could not find where they want to go and double back.

My suspicion that he could have loosen the banjo bolt holding the hydraulic hose of my front left tire was realized when I checked with my car maker authorized workshop and they told me that these brake units almost never leak, even internally. And they were also sure that the banjo bolt will not loosen in use.

So putting the whole scam in place I could deduce that this was what happened:

1. Someone followed me home on the motorcycle.
2. The security guard on duty could also be in the same gang or could be negligent in allowing the motorcyclist to go in when my car drove through. If it was the latter case, the scammer had noticed the security loophole that would enable him to enter unnoticed and made use of it.
3. The motorcyclist avoided suspicion by moving ahead as if he knew where he was going, but when I had parked my car, he would come back to locate my car at the parking lot without raising suspicion.
4. The motorcyclist would quickly loosen the hose joint of the brake actuator slightly. He should be someone who was familiar with car mechanics and the procurement of spare parts.
5. The next morning, his gang (alone or with an accomplice) would be ready to follow my car. He would have observed and known what time I would usually drive out. He would have tools ready and he would carry out his modus operandi and prey on his unsuspecting victim.

Even if my suspicion is true, and that I have been made a victim of a scam, I know that there is no proof that I can furnish to substantiate my suspicion because I did not see him loosen the hydraulic brake joint. All the while, the scammer would seem like a Good Samaritan who was helping a poor motorist who had developed an oil leak at the tires and there is no law against someone who charges some money for the services rendered.

All I can say is to be careful and aware that things might not be as they seem. My lesson learnt is that I should not be so willing to accept help, but then, if I had not accepted his help, I would still be stranded with an oil leak and have to find somebody to help me, perhaps from a different source - my car insurance company, a workshop at nearby vicinity. It could also be costly and time consuming for me - for car towing, on-site attendance or other charges.

I wished I had checked the location of the leak myself. Then, if it was a loosened bolt, I could have tighter it myself and driven off somewhere to top up my brake fluid. But I was caught by surprise.

If I had ignored the motorcyclists and moved on, or had driven so fast that the motorcyclists could not catch up with me to attract my attention, I could have died in a nasty accident along the highway. What would you have done?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6578388