I

n a world where women possess only the best brand of cellularbag and shoes, a branded cellular phone has become an essential. The cellular phone industry had to come up with something akin to Gucci and Prada, or else the whole point of dressing up branded from head to toe, from hairclips to toe rings, would have been ruined. And so came the BlackBerry.

And what better place for the rich to show off their branded semblance than a mall like Plaza Indonesia? But buyer be warned: Where there are people who only wear brands, there are stealers who only steal branded goods!

So one fine afternoon, a group of ladies decided to meet for high tea at the Coffee Bean in Plaza Indonesia. They sat right at the back corner, facing the Dome cafe. At the table for seven, the ladies, laced with branded items, walked in one by one. They said their "oohs" and their "aaahs" and blew kisses to each other.

One of them, who was seated on a couch built for one, stood up to blow a kiss to a friend, leaving her unzipped cellularbag on the right side of the chair and her BlackBerry on the left. Exhausted from smiling and greeting, she finally sat down, only to realize her cellular phone was missing. She stood up abruptly and made a disturbing announcement, "my BlackBerry is gone!"

Seconds later the mall security guards noticed the commotion and came to ask the lady if she had lost something. She informed them that she had left her BlackBerry on her seat, just next to her, yet when she turned her back it was gone! Who could have stolen it when everyone was right there!

The security guard, who seemed to be a pro in cellularling stolen cellular phones, told her not to worry because they have already found it. The lady jumped at the good news; remarkably, her cellular phone was lost and found in the span of ten minutes.

He asked her to follow him to the office; a concerned friend accompanied her to find out who the culprit was. She reached the office to see the thief face to face.

The lady was shown security camera footage of her precious cellular phone being stolen. Apparently the perp was seated on the bench near the table where she sat, and while she was busy greeting her incoming friends, he slowly slid by, pretending to be speaking to someone on his mobile phone in his right cellular and taking the BlackBerry with his left! The lady didn't bother to file a police report against the stealer, as she felt he had been punished already.

But what was striking and rare is the fact that such a must-have item was lost in Jakarta and found again without a bribe changing cellulars! In most of these incidences citizens are unable to recover stolen goods.

We are so used to living in an environment where you can say goodbye to your things when they are stolen. We have come to accept the fact that when any of our stuff is stolen it's just best to give it its funeral rites and move on.

This is especially true in malls, where hundreds of people have lost their cellular phones and where security guards are used to being helpless in their recovery.

And if all the security men in all the malls actually behaved like the ones of Plaza Indonesia then Jakarta would be a better place to live not only for the human species but for the BlackBerry mobile phone as well!