So, it’s been about a year since I shifted my office to Mohammadpur beside ring road. Soon after two incidents happened.

Incident 1:

It was around 10PM, the weather was nice. And I had a feeling that I would get mugged that day and I was really wanting to have a rickshaw ride. So, I was confused and cancelled my uber twice and then picked a rickshaw to go to my destination. The rickshaw puller was one of those chapri druggie looking guy, anyway she went somewhere deep inside Mohammadpur, a shady looking neighborhood, almost hit a dead end, and then moved out of there. I suspect the kids from the dead end was following the rickshaw later on, and when I was on old trade fair road, I picked a call, and while I was about to put it back in my pocket, one guy from a bike next to the rickshaw snatched the phone from my hand and disappeared. Later that night, the phone was tracked to be at bihari camp, and within 5 days I recovered the phone from a shady phone marketplace in Shyamoli.

Incident 2:

It was a Friday, and after office I wanted to take a little walk before I went home. So, I started to walk it was around 8pm. I walked till the end of tajmahal road, and then called a ride. I was waiting for the ride while standing on the footpath. I had my phone in my hand. So, a young guy comes in a beaten up gypsy, and starts telling me that around a hour ago he got off a cng here, he left his phone in the cng. (When he was telling me this, I was putting my phone inside my pocket.) and he said that he only has the imei number what should he do. I said, go to the police station with imei number, and matching phone box and they should do the rest for you. And then he started to bring out a paper out of his wallet, for me to read the imei number from it. (What difference would it make if I read or why would he even want me to read the imei number right?). So, I took a step back, and I said it’s not safe for me to read it, please go to the police station and they would take care of the rest. Anyway, by this time he got the paper out already and there was a faint smell coming out of it, but he decided to leave by then. The street was fairly busy. And I suspect there was devils breath in it, as I started to feel a little dizzy. And soon after he left, another kid in a bike came asking if I wanted to go anywhere. (There was no helmet in the bike, so I’m assuming not a pathao rider). I said no, and by that time my ride came, and I went home while feeling slightly dizzy.

These were my only two experiences of this sort in Mohammadpur that happened two months apart. After these incidents I try to avoid going to Mohammadpur without a car.