Highway con (insurance technique)

WARNING!

These are REAL incidents that have happened to people. We choose to place you as the main character so as to show you how easy it is to fall prey to such circumstances. Remember ROLES CHANGE, SKILLS EVOLVE but SCRIPT remains the SAME. So IGNORANCE of the probability of such occurrences ever happening to you is entirely at your own DISCRETION!!!

Picture yourself driving along an almost deserted highway dead in the night. Your mind riddled with anxiety to the extent of wishing you possessed the magnificent power of teleportation activated by simply visualizing yourself on your warm, comfortable bed and in the blink of an eye, your thoughts quickly manifest into reality.

What an awesome ability it would have been … right?

Wrong! Reality quickly hits you hard like an Apache hellfire missile when your vehicle’s navigation system mockingly indicates that you still have a couple of more miles to cover before you can finally offload your worn out anatomy onto your soft satin sheets and clear your mind off all the stressful workload you endured throughout the day plus the ungodly overtime that you had to accrue.

A couple of minutes later with a decent mileage covered, you catch sight of a strange beam of light cutting across the darkness further ahead. As you get nearer, you realize that the light source grows ever so persistent in pointing towards a particular direction as if signaling for you to follow it.

Just as your mind is contemplating a plausible explanation for the occurrence, your vehicle’s headlights faintly illuminates what seems like an obstruction dead centre on the road.

You instinctively slow down as the object clearly begins to come into focus of your vehicle’s headlights. The revelation of the unknown object comes clearer when you discover that it is a rotten tree bark laid precariously in the middle of the road.

Beside it stands what seems like a policeman owing to the official regalia he adorns. On his right arm, he clutches a torch emitting an equally intensive ‘pure white’ light beam as if rivaling your car’s headlights and on the other hand, he wields a crude night stick.

On the side of the road stands another ‘officer’ of the law with the same attire as the previous one.

Obviously startled, you can almost hear yourself wonder, “I don’t remember there ever being a police road block on this stretch of road before?”

“Don’t worry these are cops, don’t you see their official uniforms?”your mind seems to make light of the situation.

“No! wait which cops use tree barks instead of the usual tyre spikes evident in all the routine roadblock checks countrywide”-you seem to challenge your inner voice.

“Oh my God, these are thugs!”the conclusion suddenly creates an adrenaline rush that almost instinctively triggers the nerves of your right foot to floor the gas pedal but before the action can be executed, a bright light suddenly blinds your vision, all these happening within a span of 10 seconds.

You quickly let one hand off the steering wheel as you shield your eyes from the intrusive light source.

Police: “Ebu zima gari”- (Turn off your engine)

You suddenly hear a voice roar. You turn to the direction of the voice as you wait for your pupils to adjust to the abrupt light differentiation.

The voice’s figure comes into focus and you can clearly see that it is the latter ‘officer’ who was previously at the side of the road but this time, he is standing right next to your driver seat window tapping on the glass.

Police: “Ebu zima gari” – (Turn off your engine), he repeats

Visibly trembling, you hesitantly switch off your engine all the while assuring yourself that no matter what happens, you will not open for them the doors to your vehicle. It states so even in the Kenyan la, so you will not be breaking any law if you deny them entry into your vehicle. By this fact, you console yourself that you are indeed safe in the confines of your car.

Meanwhile, the ‘officer’ is calculatively moving around your vehicle as if looking for something. He produces a torch and focuses its light beam inside your car to scan its contents as he completes the circumference of your vehicle’s exterior.

He returns to your driver seat window and bellows,

Police: “Unaelekea wapi saa hii usiku?”- (where are you heading to at this time of night?

You: “Nimetoka kazi kuchelewa kidogo na ndio naelekea nyumbani”- (I have been working late and now I am returning home), you reply

Police: “Unafanya kazi wapi?”- (where do you work?)

You: “Nafanya kwa ……………… “- (I work at…………………..)

Police: “Ok sawa, lakini naona umepata ajali kidogo apo kwa brakelights”- (I see you had a little accident with your brakelights)

You: (Obviously shocked) “Hapana sijakuwa kwa ajali yoyote”- (No, I haven’t been in any accident)

Police: “Mbona basi brakelights imevunjika?”- (Why then are your brakelights broken?)

You: “Hapana Afande sijakuwa kwa ajali yoyote”- (No! sir, I haven’t been involved in any accident)

Police: “Unataka kusema polisi anadanganya?”- (You want to say that a policeman can lie?)

You: “Hapana sio ivo, niko na hakika sijagonga kitu yoyote”- (No! I am sure I haven’t hit anything), you reply as you fight the urge to leave the vehicle and confirm your innocent judgement.

[There’s a brief moment of silence and he moves towards the front of your windshield, you breathe a sigh of relief glad that the tense moment has been diverted.

He squints at the glass to inspect the insurance information, shakes his head unbelievably and remarks,

Police: “Yani unaweka gari barabara na insurance ime-expire?”- (

You: (Eyes wide open and visibly shocked) “Haiwezekani insurance yangu ina expire next year labda umekosea ebu angalia vizuri”- (its impossible my insurance expires next year maybe you have made a mistake)

Police: (Visibly irritated) “Unataka kusema polisi anadanganya?”- (you want to say that a police officer can lie?)

Police: “Kiplagat ebu kuja imisomee hii insurance, anasema eti sijui kusoma”- (Kiplagat come here and read me this insurance, he says that I can’t read), he signals to his other partner who is busy monitoring oncoming cars.

“You: Sio ivo mkubwa, sijasema huwezi soma nimesema labda umeangalia vibaya”- (Its not that way sir, I have not said that you cant read, I only meant that maybe you misread it), you reply apologetically.

Meanwhile the other officer joins him and he squints at the insurance details on the windscreen

Police 2: “Hii ime-expire kweli”- (it has truly expired), he replies

Dumbfounded at the thought of being proven wrong by the 2 ‘officers’ and anxious to redeem yourself and justify your innocence, you unlock your car door and join them.

You squint at the insurance details and immediately regret your action.

Even in the darkness, you can clearly read the typed letters. Before you can react, a hard blow sends your face flat on the ground.

You lay helplessly as they ransack your pockets as one of them leaves and heads for your car. A second blow sends you into a brief mode of unconsciousness and when you finally regain it, you see your vehicle driving away into the distance, its brakelights obviously in perfect condition then it finally dawns on you that you are a victim of a well organized carjacking!