My laptop bag was stolen in London during a recent visit. I have no one but myself to blame for being careless enough to have let that happen. We were on a family holiday and had arrived by train from Oxford to London, walked down to the bus stand were waiting for the bus. We were four of us with eight pieces of luggage, including my laptop bag. My attention must have wandered for a minute and suddenly I realised that the bag was missing. It had my Macbook and iPad, and since I could track these on my iPhone, I could see the devices moving away from us rapidly. My son and I, along with a very helpful elderly gentleman from a nearby shop (God bless him), chased after the dots on the phone tracker indicating the location of the devices. Unfortunately the thief was faster, and apparently boarded the tube and got away before we could catch up.
The elderly gentleman advised me to call 999 and report the theft to the police, which I did immediately. The operator was most helpful and efficient, taking down all the relevant details and giving me the report number. I also promptly got an acknowledgement via text. I had emphasised to the operator that the devices are continuously being tracked by my phone, and if the police took immediate action they could apprehend the thief with the help of that. I even shared my login and password with the police, so that they could use the tracker. For the rest of the day, I constantly monitored the location of the devices, and was confident that the police were also doing the same and would soon contact me to confirm that the bag had been recovered. Well – that did not happen.
Next morning, really disappointed, and still able to see the location of the devices, I tweeted about it. Apparently the number of eyeballs my tweet was getting galvanised the police into action, and I got a call from them asking me if I could still see the location of the devices. I gave them the updated location, and pleaded with them to dispatch someone there immediately. I also told them that the login details had been shared with the police and would be in the report, and the officers going to the location could log in and track the devices in real time. My hopes were raised again, and I spent half a day in excited anticipation. Then I got a call again, saying that the officers had gone to the location, and it being a residential area they could not ascertain exactly which house to enter. Shortly afterwards I got a letter via email saying that my case had been closed. I would give full marks to them on their paperwork – if only their police work was half as good. I was thinking that a local beat cop in Delhi, given the location of stolen goods, would probably know who were the likely culprits in the area and wouldn’t take long to recover them.
Incidentally, my passport was also in the bag. I contacted the Indian High Commission, and went down there next day with the papers they had asked me to carry. Full marks to them for their efficiency, an Emergency Certificate to enable me to travel back was issued within half a day. In contrast, my request to the police for getting a copy of the crime report filed by me (to help my application for new passport) is still going back and forth over email. I think the London Metropolitan Police has more bureaucrats than cops.
Then came my nightmare with the British Healthcare system. My medicine was also in the bag, and I needed 5 days worth of one vital medicine to see me through the rest of the stay. The pharmacist obviously couldn’t help and advised me to get a prescription. I called the NHS helpline who asked me to go to Emergency at St Thomas hospital. The Emergency saw my Indian prescription and referred me to a GP. Waiting time to see the GP was 4 hours, and when our turn came the doctor was most understanding. She said that obviously I needed the medicine, she wanted to help me out, but the system wasn’t allowing her to write a prescription. The reasons she tried to explain went over my head.
I reached out to a friend who had been posted at the Indian High Commission earlier, and he connected me with an Indian doctor. The kind gentleman explained to me that there was no legitimate way for him to prescribe the medicine to me without me undergoing tests – which, besides being expensive, would consume precious vacation time.
Ultimately it was good old Indian Jugaad to the rescue. Understanding my predicament over one measly strip of medicine, he promised to help me out. He told me to go to a particular pharmacy in Southall run by an Indian gentleman, and that he would speak to the person concerned there. I went to the pharmacy, gave the name of the doctor, and was given the medicine. The good Samaritan did not even let me pay for it despite my insistence.
So in the ultimate analysis Indian bhaichara trumped the “advanced” Medicare system of NHS.
I came away from UK minus my devices but with a newfound appreciation of Indian systems – policing, healthcare and consular services.
PS – Two weeks later, I can still see the location of my devices. I open the app once in a while and wistfully look at it. What more can I do? The only consolation I have is that the thief will also never be able to use the devices thanks to Apple’s theft protection.
