Adventurous Weekend

It was supposed to be a weekend trip away to Sungai Petani visiting good friends, especially my friend Etty. He lost his husband last November suddenly, and I was too heavily pregnant with Sofiyah to go for a visit. So after so many postponement on my part, I have finally managed to get everyone into the car for the trip one weekend.

We left later in the day on the 18th September, spent the night in El-Zehraa in SP and off to meet Etty the next morning.

I have only been sitting around having breakfast at her place, when suddenly my DH rushed back into Etty's house after leaving for the laundry services around Bandar Laguna Merbok. He said some students were trying to reach him and reporting that our house's gate and door have been left wide open and they suspected that somebody had broken into it. They also claimed the car was no longer there. There I was thinking - oh ok, luckily no ones home when the break ins happened, Alhamdulillah. That was such a relieve.

Anyway, it was almost Zohor then on the 19th of September. So we waited for Zohor and rushed home by 2.00 pm. In the meantime, Abah dropped by the house and took some photos to ease some of our concerns in regards to what have been missing. I am only worried of two things - the photos of the baby and the children in all of our electronic devices left at home and also my jewelries. The location of the jewelries seems untouched, so that's one less loss on our part. So I head home wondering more about the data rather than the car nor the TV hihi...

But as we reached Malim Nawar, the traffic on the PLUS Highway started to slow down. We were then stuck in almost 13km traffic congestion for almost 3 hours. A trailer of some sort skidded and blocked the entire lanes heading to KL. We only reached Bukit Merah around 6 pm. And only reached Seremban by 2.00 am on the 20th September. Imagine the stress we were under, our house was recently broken into and we need to waddle the traffic which led us to spend almost 11 hours on the road to reach home. I was so mad at PLUS, I called them to give them a piece of my mind!

By the time we reached Seremban 3, we were too exhausted to actually do anything else. The UiTM Polis Bantuan had helped locked the front gate with chains and the students next door had managed to find an extra lock for the sliding doors too. We were utterly grateful for their help. Once we got both to unlock the chains and the lock, we went in nervously to assess the situation. Alhamdulillah, upon doing some preliminary rounds, we noticed that nothing else was missing, except for the car and the TV. Every thing else remained in the house, despite the fact that some of the items were hidden in plain sight.
We decided to report the matter the next day instead because we were beyond exhausted.

The followings are all the actions needed to be taken in cases of stolen cars:

Do a police report

The next morning, we draft the police report and I head to Seremban 2 IPD to file my report. Once I am done, I paid to buy the report, which cost RM2. If you ever get into such trouble in the future, please be reminded to be given the yellowish slip receipt because the Insurance Company will only considered you had an original police report if you got that yellow slip. I almost wasn't issued one. Having the report made and printed is free. However, payment must be paid to get the printed copy to be considered as an official copy. (I hope I'm making sense here)

Assist the investigating officer in his investigation

In an hour after I made the report, the Investigation Officer (IO) for my case was assigned and he dropped by my house with his photographer. He left after awhile. There's nothing much we can say nor offer him in terms of info, since we were away when it happened. A few days later another police officer did call asking about whether we've left Touch & Go Card in the car, so he could trace the car from the Toll's charge, but since we rarely use the car, no such card was left in it.

Inform the Insurance Company and file documentations

Anyway, by Monday the 21st of September, I informed the Insurance Company and 2 days later submitted all the applications forms and documents required by the company in order for me to make my claim. I am required to submit:

1. The Original Police Report
2. The Original Car's Registration Card (which you can give later if it's still with the bank)
3. The Insurance Cover Note
4. A copy of my IC and Driver's License
5. Keys to the car (which can also be given to the adjuster)
6. 2 copies of the JPJK3A forms (Borang Tukar Hakmilik)

Upon receiving the notification an adjuster was appointed for my case. 

Make arrangements with the adjuster

After several calls with the adjuster, we finally managed to set a date for a meeting with the adjuster on the 8th of October. The adjuster dropped by the house to interview and take my statements. They were quite a considerable of questions he kept repeating, albeit in different versions. But what I gather, he's just trying to detect if there's any fraud involved. He later snapped some photos of the 'crime scene' as part of his report to the insurance company. He also took a copy of my car's hire purchase agreement and collected the remaining set of keys to the car.

Follow up with the adjuster

I made sure to follow through with the adjuster. After a few days he reported that he had submitted my claim. He can't confirm the amount but he generally insisted that it will need to be based on the year the car was manufactured. (We learned from this experience to never buy car from the year end stock of the previous year. Although it's cheaper due to price promotion, the value will still need to be based on the previous year. For e.g. if the car manufactured in 2011, but registered in 2012 like ours, the value will need to be based on 2011, not 2012. Bummer!)

Anyway, 10 days after the interview, our adjuster issued a letter requesting the police findings' report from the Investigating Officer. I was informed if I wanted to speed things up I need to follow up the request for the report with my IO.

Follow up with the IO

Which I did, of course! Anyway, since it has always been a month and no news have been heard of the car, on the 21st of October 2015, the IO had issued a findings' report that the case will be CLOSED, and will be reopen upon findings of further info and arrests.

Submission of the police investigation's findings to the adjuster

I immediately submitted the findings of the police to the adjuster. A week later, the insurance company approved my claim. I received the necessary documentations at the end of October. Initially I was a bit disappointed with the amount. I was advised if I disagree I may opt for a different valuation from PERODUA. I did make the call, but it seems the value quoted is even lower. So I decided to just go along with the amount, considering that I don't really need to top up the amount of the remaining of my hire purchase to the bank.

Completing the final documentations for the Insurance Company

There are a few documents that the insurance company need in order to process the claim. This is where it got tricky, because the car was bought in Kedah, so the documentations need to be signed and approved or issued by the  bank in Kedah too. Bummer! So I need 2 of these documents signed and stamped by the bank:

1. Discharge Voucher (Discharge & Subrogation Letter of the bank's and my right in the car)
2. Redemption statement & undertaking letter from the bank (this letter stating that the bank will release the car's e-hakmilik to the insurance company once the cheque is cleared)

I need to scan and email these documents to Alor Star and they would signed & stamped everything and courier them back to the Insurance Company. I emailed them on the 5th of November, and made sure I followed up with the relevant officer. They completed everything and couriered the Insurance Company by the 13th of November. 

We received the difference of the amount paid by the Insurance Company on the 16th of December, which meant we are no longer officially responsible of PKL7*77

It actually took almost a month waiting for the claim to be cleared. In the meantime, the IO continued with their investigations. In fact, on the 4th November IO from the Seremban IPK called informing me that they have found our TV somewhere in a restaurant in Nilai. Our IO returned the TV on the 12th of November at the IPD Seremban 2.

On the 18th of January 2016, almost 4 months after we lost the car, the IO called informing that they have found the car. He confirmed whether I have received the claims, so he can returned the car to the adjuster. I confirmed all had already been processed and wondered if we can have a look at the car one final time before he returned it to the Insurance Company. He complied. So we went to see what's left of the car on the 19th of January. Nothing much was inside it, of course. Anyway, we had one last look, thank our IO and left. 

The Plate Number was taken from a motorbike's registration number

Early in February, on the 4th, I received my first ever subpoena to court for this case. I will need to be a witness on the 2nd of March at the Magistrates' court. Will later update on the outcome on another post, In Sya Allah.