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The kidnap
It was on a Sunday evening when internet marketer Chin Xin-Ci was alone, loading her shopping bags into the rear seat of her boyfriend’s car. All of a sudden, the car door was slammed into her back and a meat cleaver was pressed to her throat.
A skinny, moustached Indian man then shoved Chin into the backseat, all the while waving the cleaver and warning her not to scream.
A second person appeared, a Malay man with a crewcut, and he grabbed Chin’s car keys before takingthe driver’s seat. The Indian man got into the backseat with Chin and began to make sexual advances towards her. In her note posted on Facebook, Chin said that in that moment it hit her. “Oh my God. Oh my God. This is really happening. I’m being kidnapped.. and I think I know what they want.”
A daring escape
Fortunately for Chin Xin-Ci, she managed to escape alive and in her Facebook note, she attributed her survival to several important decisions she made in the car.
1. She managed to get into a position to escape
In the car, the Indian man tried to force her body to the floor, a position which would severely diminish her chances of escape. Instead she begged him to let her sit up, promising not to scream or attract attention. When he gripped her arm tightly, she told him that it really hurt and pleaded with him to loosen his grip, which he eventually did.
2. She did not fight for the sake of fighting
Chin decided not to fight in the car. She assessed her surroundings and realized she was in a small, enclosed space, with no clear escape route. There were two assailants and they had sharp weapons. She might have been knocked out cold and thus easier to kidnap.
3. She used her cunning
3. She used her cunning
The car doors were locked by Chin knew that the only way to escape, was to jump out of the car, even if it was moving. She leaned back, pretending to scratch her hair, and shakily unlocked the door she was leaning on.
4. She made her move at the right time
Chin knew that the car would have to slow down outside the parking lot, as it exited to merge with the main road. When the car slowed down, she threw open the door and tried to make a run for it. However both men struggled to pull her back in. Chin remembered thinking “Even if I don’t get out now, I need to keep the door open and my legs out the door. At the very least, it should cause a scene, and someone would see me. Or, the door might hit another car and they’ll be forced to slow down.”
She kept kicking, elbowing, struggling and even biting, until the Malay driver yelled “BAGI DIA LEPAS! BAGI DIA LEPAS!” (Let her go! Let her go!) and the Indian man loosened his grip. She was free.
Chin’s advice
Chin shared this story to warn women out there to be vigilant. She urged girls not to go out alone and not take the their mothers’ fears lightly. In her words: “We never think it’s going to happen to us… and then it does. I used to think that this is something that happens only in the papers and to people far, far removed from me. But then it did happen to me.”
