CHASE

The word Chase catapults you to Master of the Chase ---- JAMES

Not the James Hadley Chase who ’Hardly Chases’

but the ’Bonding’ James who introduces himself as

‘’MY NAME IS BOND -- JAMES BOND’’

However --- I will not be covering him in my story.

My story is not even about a robbery followed by a chase staged in the bank —

CHASE BANK.

The chasing going back to 1955 when Chase National Bank and The Manhattan Company merged to create The Chase Manhattan Bank followed in 2000 to the chased acquisition of JPMorgan and co to form JPMorgan Chase Bank, shortening the branded name to CHASE.

I have based my story on a CHASE which I was a part of close to home and close to my heart or rather my ’NECK’

This happened in England in Sudbury Town --Middlesex county (which also houses the mecca of football - Wembley Stadium)

As I lived in Alperton my daily commute involved a morning car drive to Sudbury Town station and after parking the car there, a tube ride on the Piccadilly line to Gloucester Road station my workplace.

Working as a chef, involving a ’break shift’ this was a daily routine I followed twice in the day.

My break after lunch service entailed a trip back to Sudbury Town, drive to the kid's school, pick them up and drop them home, grab a cup of steaming Tea, drive back to Sudbury Town and take the train back to resume work for the dinner service.

One dreary afternoon I got off the train and was trudging over the bridge and walking down the ramp on the other side of the station towards my parked car.

I noticed two teenagers donning hoods chatting to one another and sitting idle on their bicycles.

As I passed them I passed on compliments of the Day.

They responded with a cold shoulder.

I walked on hurriedly, trying to catch up on time and not be late for the school pick up.

My car being parked a couple of streets away I had to pass a lane which had houses on either side of the street.

Winter does bring in sunsets early in England and even around 4 pm, it feels like 9 pm with darkness enveloping the country.

The street lamps shed their eerie yellow glow as the chilled wind rustled the dry leaves whipping them up with dust into eyes of road users.

With the temperatures also dropping it necessitated the use of sweaters and overcoats to stay warm.

Clutching my sweater, hands in my pockets, I sharply turned to see the two boys astride their bicycles riding slowly towards the lane I had entered.

Just assessing this as a coincidence I increased my stride.

I suddenly realised that the street was deserted apart from the three of us.

Me on my feet and two of them on their cycles.

Fear suddenly crept in as I felt a bit unnerved.

To make sure I was not being followed I crossed over to the footpath on the other side of the street.

A few paces and a few faster heartbeat I came to realise that the two riders had also crossed over to my side.

Alarm bells rang as I realised I was still far away from my parked car and the only option was to speedily walk on.

Halfway through the street, they had increased their speed to ride straight behind me and before I could say Abracadabra I felt a hand hold the top neckline of my sweater and shirt and jerk it down to expose my neck.

In a jiffy, another hand wrapped around my exposed 22-carat gold chain and yanked it.

The pressure involved had yawned the chains hook and eye part giving way at it's weakest link.

Before I realised I had been robbed in daylight both bikes had turned around and were peddling away with their booty towards a wider street.

It is common knowledge in England that Indians wear jewellery and it is a habit among the men to wear thick gold chains with various charms and pendants.

Unfortunately, I also fell in this category and my gold chain always sported my lucky stone pendant.

A pendant on my gold chain of green cats eye stone embodied in gold hung from my chain lying squarely on my sternum.

I had been targetted.

Now that I had been robbed I automatically shouted out for help.

Realising - screaming out on the top of my voice, many times ”Help Help -- I have been robbed” - got no responses or opened any closed doors, I decided to give the robbers a CHASE.

Both the teenagers, who were on their bikes, realising that I was chasing started zigzagging on the road to put me off-trail.

I don't know where the inner strength came from or where the grit surfaced from.

Adrenaline pumped to its peak I was getting wound up.

More than the act of losing jewellery it was the feeling of being robbed by these teenagers was what motivated me to chase.

I had to teach them a lesson.

The road was still devoid of humans or moving vehicles and the parked cars were the only props in my stage.

The chase continued for a distance and I could see my targets slipping away.

I was just wading through the chase as all my surroundings receded into a blur.

It was a chase of legs after wheels.

I was disadvantaged.

After all they had the advantage of riding a bicycle.

One of the robbers had peddled further away from my grasp.

Stomping across the tar road in leaps and bounds I some how managed to close the gap and come close to the second cyclist.

My wet shirt below my sweater was clinging to my body and huge beads of sweat were dripping from my face.

Even though it was cold outside I was dripping with sweat.

The drama was so magnified that I felt I could literally hear the loud pops as the sweat drops burst into hundreds droplets as they hit the tar road and exploded.

As a marathon runner trying to be first and cut through the ribbon at the finish line, hands grasping out into thin air, I finally managed to reach out.

After a few futile tries my hand struck metal.

It felt like striking Gold.

I had got a grasp on the edge of his cycle.

Using all my inner strength I held on to the cycle to bring it to a stop and managed to shove the cyclist off his ride.

To my surprise and glee, both he and his cycle came crashing down.

My CHASE had gifted me with a result.

David had felled his Goliath!!

Jumping forward to clasp onto my robber, he somehow managed to wiggle out, give the slip and sprint out.

I was in a dilemma.

Should I follow him or should I hold onto the evidence, -- his bike -- my prize.

My brain was computing on the odds.

Kerchang!!

I decided on the latter as he had conveniently slipped into some bye lanes and as he would know the terrain catching him here may be a challenge.

I now composed myself and called the emergency number 999 from my cellular phone.

When you ring 999, the BT (British Telecom) operator will ask you which emergency service ( Fire, Police, Ambulance) you need and the number you are calling from.

If you need the police --

they will transfer your call to the Force Control Room in Nettleham. ... The call taker will ask you the location of the emergency and what the emergency is.

They will then take your details.

I requested for the police and on being connected gave them my personal details and details of location and the crime.

I was told a patrol car was on its way to assist me.

Within about 7 minutes a BMW2 Incident response vehicles (IRVs) used by UK police arrived fitted with blue lights and sirens to warn other road users and pedestrians vehicles that they need to make way for the police vehicle.

Two crisply dressed officers jumped out and after trying to calm me down started taking down details.

Once I had narrated the chain of events their first reaction was that I should not have chased the robbers and foiled their escape plan.

Their point of view was that I could have been injured or physically attacked if they had been carrying weapons of any sort.

They asked me to jump into the car so that they could cruise around the area and see if I could get a visual identification of the robbers so that they could be apprehended.

Pointing to their bicycle in my possession I enquired what to do with it.

They asked me to leave it on the side of the road for the meantime, till we tried to scour for them in the car.

I got in and we cruised crisscrossing the neighbourhood.

After a good 20 minutes and a few miles of travelling in the area, there was no luck so we can back to the original crime scene.

Looking around I noticed that the bicycle had disappeared from the site where I had placed it.

In all probability, the robbers had come back once we drove away and retrieved the one piece of evidence I had.

The police officers just shrugged their shoulders at this oversight of theirs.

I was asked to come to Wembley Police station the next day to try and identify the robbers from a photo album/gallery.

It was a futile task as due to the boys being hooded I would not be successful in this process.

Now that the police had gone and my inertia and build-up of the chase were settling in, standing alone, scary thoughts crossed my mind.

What if I had been physically attacked?

What if I was maimed?

What if -------- ???

I did not have answers just the momentary elated feeling that I had succeeded in the chase and enjoyed it.

Later that evening I came back to the crime scene and did a thorough search of the ground from the light ray of my iPhone.

Lying is a corner glistening in the dark my lucky charm green cats eye pendant was staring back at me.

It must have slid off the chain onto the road as my chain snatcher had yanked off with just the plain chain firmly clasped in his hand.

This was divine intervention.

I had lost the gold chain but felt lucky to have got back my pendant.

Importantly I had also been unharmed.

I always think back, remembering how after my chase the police lost the bicycle and evidence to catch both the robbers --

A smile crosses my mind.

It reminds me of a Proverb which had its origins in a proverbial saying first found in English in John Capgrave's The Life of St Katharine of Alexandria, 1450:

"It is more sekyr [certain] a byrd in your fest, Than to haue three in the sky a‐boue."

Simplified in plain English to ----

A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH.