Theft in Qatar! Haw!

It's hard but its easy, it's hard and I'm bored... but what it all comes down to... I got one hand in my pocket, and the other one is flicking a cigarrette.

Whatever.

Anyway, a couple of days ago there was a report in the paper that a guy tried to shoplift "expensive ciggies" from a supermarket in Souq Dira. It's Dira, don't know why the paper spelt it Deira - so confusingly. I think they're also getting the Suniel Shetty syndrome.

The shoplifter when caught attacked the shopkeeper with a knife and ran away... the public apparently ran after him, just like we see in hindi movies screaming "Chor Chor Chor", eventually nabbed him and handed him over to the cops.

Now someone, whoever the reporter was, wrote that "shopkeepers in the locality complained of sharp increase" in such thefts.

I went there today to the same shop. I saw the man who was attacked, and I saw the shop. It's huge, and not a single camera installed. Probably someone would be stealing somein or the other everyday without his knowledge. This particular shoplifter he said he caught because he recognised him from before.

The same guy apparently had came to his shop before and also tried to steal something. What a friggin duffer man? Why does the shoplifter keep going to the same shop even after being caught? Psychos I tell you.

Anyway, the shopkeeper said, "There's no increase and all. Stuff like this happens like once a year or something."

Other shopkeepers say the same thing. The reporter obviously just added a little bit of his own opinion at the end of the story. Anyway, that's acceptable in journalism anywhere. Trust me, it is. Only that because of that one line, I wasted a few riyals traveling to Souq Dira chasing a non-story. OK waste is a wrong word. There's no such thing as waste when you're seeing something new, good or bad.

Also, even if there is a sharp increase, none of the shopkeepers want to talk about it. First things first, people don't easily talk to the press out here, unless its a press conference. It's just a general fear across the desert country.

I don't blame the shopkeepers though. I mean, they don't want their shop identified that "hey look, there's no camera in this one, this one's easy to rob."

It's weird. People don't have cameras unless its a really really big supermarket like Carrefour or Lulu Hypermart. It's that way only. Thefts are not common in Qatar. People leave their cars open and on with their ACs on go into the meeting or whatever, lunch or dinner, come back, open their car doors, the car is nice and cool and they drive off. No one steals anything. people leave their homes open. No one really locks anything.

Wonder what happens to that guy who got caught lifting ciggies. Cops don't usually tell what they do with the suspect... don't know if he eventually becomes the convict, or how the system works. It isn't too transparent.

Weird... this whole subject.

Back to a different story.