The Hat Squad

I have an interesting story when I was still at high school. The story about a carefully dressed criminal groups, when they acted on the city bus. My school was included to be one of favorite public schools at the center of Surabaya.

A school which surrounded by many entertainment centers, such as malls and cinemas. As a stress release after a day study, I always brought a shirt from home to change my uniform when I was entering the mall after school. That is one of my reason in choosing the school.

At that time I was living in Sidoarjo, which is 23 km from my school. I chose school which was far from home, to collect more pocket money from my parents, that's my major reason. I always used the city bus for my transportation to school, later moved to other transport at Surabaya City's border toward my home. The total time of journey was about an hour.

I always remembered a group of criminals in the city bus, I named them 'Hat Squad'. Why I named them so? Because before they got into a crowded city bus, they all wore jackets and hats. While in the city bus, they put their hat and tucked in the back pocket, with jacket folded in their arms.

The Hat Squad was a group of 5 men, 2 men up from the front door and 3 men went up from the back door. On the bus, 2 men were standing at the front and back door, while 3 other men were playing around on the city bus. I'd get lucky to have a seat, after a man got off from his seat, and went down to the city bus.

Unfortunately for him, his wallet that was in his back pocket was taken very quickly by a man that stood on the back door. Apparently almost all the passengers in the bus had been touched by all members of the Hat Squad without mutiny none of them to shout.

Coincidentally, I sat on the far back left, precisely near the back door, so I could see clearly up to the position of the front seat. Over the course of approximately 1km, I watched the Hat Squad in action, without totally ignored by the bus conductor. Conductor probably had already knew, if they were a group of robbers.

They were also not drawn to pay the bus ticket by the conductor. When they went down on Wonokromo, Surabaya, a famous area in Surabaya which was known for its crime situation, those 5 men were immediately put on their jacket and hat, as they walked hand in hand, just like a scene in one of my favorite TV serial titled The Hat Squad.