Security Isn’t a Priority At The Curve Shopping Mall

I normally prefer not complain about things online, but I feel that it’s important to point out my recent experience at the The Curve shopping mall, since car park security at shopping malls has been a hot topic recently.

Note: In case this happens to sound like something bad happened, there was no attack, just disappointment in the management of The Curve. So there isn’t any crime story here (fortunately).

As we all know there have been several incidents at The Curve shopping mall, the recent attempted carjacking/kidnapping of a girl and a ‘curry powder’ robbery all happened within a day or two of each other. Not too long after that, a long list of attacks started happening in shopping malls. The good news, is that some shopping malls have begun to beef up their security and also offer shoppers the option of having the security guard escort them to their car. I recently noticed that One Utama had posted such a notice on their Facebook page. While I haven’t asked their security guards to escort me to my car (yet), but it’s a step in the right direction.

I hadn’t been to The Curve in a while, but I was there for a movie today (The Dark Knight rises, if you’re interested, excellent movie). I parked very near the escalator under Borders bookstore, figuring that it’d be easy to me to quickly get to my car when I was done and leave the mall. I was mistaken.

At 11pm when I was going back to my car, I realized that I had forgotten that The Curve closes certain parts of the shopping mall after a certain time, forcing you to enter the car park near Starbucks and walking to your car from there. Normally it’s a not a big deal, but taking into account recent issues and the fact that I had my fiancée with me, it would be a lot safer to go through the mall and take the escalator nearest to my car. As mentioned, that portion of the mall was closed, and the security guard (En. Nasron, according to his name tag) I talked to (at the center of the mall) told me that there wasn’t any way through and to take the long walk through the parking lot. When asked if he was willing to accompany us, he said “mana boleh?” as if I’d just ask him to do the most absurd thing in the world. I tried a few more times and asked if he could get some other security guard to accompany us if he wasn’t able to leave his post. He just kept brushing us off, akin to someone telling a beggar to stop troubling him, insisting that there were other people down in the parking lot, so it wasn’t an issue. I made one last try to get him to follow us, but obviously he didn’t.

I went on my way towards my car, trying to stick to whatever people I saw going towards their car. The funny thing is, I came across two vans full of security guards, seemingly ready to leave. Honestly, I don’t know what they were doing there, but there seemed pretty relaxed, just like they got off work, and a few of them were just loitering around, smoking.

I’m not going to disapprove of any security guard ending his shift, but shouldn’t the management ensure that there are adequate security guards in the car park? These two vans of security guards were the only ones I saw in the car park, and I walked about half the length of the car park to get to my car. I guess I can’t complain of the lack of security guards, since there were plenty of them, just that they were all huddled up and not bothered our safety.

I hope the management team at The Curve will answer the following questions:

1. Why aren’t there any security guards patrolling the parking lot? Especially when it’s at night and dangerous.
2. Why are your security guards in the mall unable to direct me to someone/some way of getting me to get to my car safely, instead of brushing me off?
3. Why are routes to the car park deliberately closed off, despite the recent attacks at shopping malls
4. Are there any plans to implement any form of security escort service, similar to other malls?

To those who are patient enough to still be reading this, it might be a good idea to think if the management team at The Curve has answered the questions I posed above, before deciding to go there. I for one, won’t be going to The Curve in a while.

Update: I tried sending my concerns via their website, but all I got was an error message:

Update 2: The person in charge of security at The Curve called me and apologized for the incident. He agreed that the guard should have accompanied me to my car, and that he had been reprimanded. Hopefully this sort of this doesn’t happen again in the future.