We called several garages who quoted us AED150 and AED300 respectively, to come out and jimmy the door, before one mechanic told us that you are meant to call the police to unlock a vehicle. We gave the police a call, and they told me they would send someone out. We waited for ages, and finally the guy called looking for directions. We went down to the road to show him where to go.
The funniest guy, he turned up in the police rescue truck, beaming and apologising profusely for the delay. He blamed traffic, but I suspect he took a wrong turn somewhere. We hopped up into the cab and drove up to the car park - I know, we should have asked him to put the lights and sirens on, but it was already a little embarassing!
He spent about 10 minutes trying to break into the car with his bits of wire and metal, and though I was paying close attention I still don't know how he finally got the door unlocked!
What was really worrying - it was at least 5 minutes after the first attempt to break in that the car alarm sounded - I'm sure a professional car thief would be driving away in it by then! I am interested to know how long it really would take a thief to break in.
Of course after the door was opened, we discovered that the battery was dead.
We provided a bit of entertainment for the morning - building security came to investigate what was happening, then a random guy from the car park ambled over and had a good look, before handing AL his coffee cup and getting involved. I don't know, you hear stories about how unfriendly people are in Dubai, but we are so often surprised by the real interest that people show when you have a spot of bother. We had dinner just the other night with a lovely couple who helped us out when we had an earlier problem with the car.
It would almost be a shame if we were to get a brand spankin new car - I don't know what we would find to laugh about, and we would certainly have
fewer dinner companions!
Looks so sweet and innocent, right? Wrong!!
The car looks happy despite the mishap!
ReplyDeleteeverything distils into reading
Hi Shari! I came over to visit, finally, to see what you served up to the SS crowd regarding soul mates and I ended up here just loving this entertaining story. So much the better, since I’m far more intrigued with life abroad, itrigued from the relative safety of the USA, that is. Yes, vicarious living is for me. Don’t know if you’ve run into Chris at http://e-cuneiform.blogspot.com/ yet, but he’s lived in many countries and is a hoot to follow.
ReplyDeleteAh! and I note one of your favorite books, C&P, is mine as well.
Good stuff here : )