They rifle the vehicle for cash, jewelry and other valuables. Sirens wail, police try to pick up the scent. An ambulance crew arrives and bundles the shaken shipowner off to the hospital. The incident makes the evening news. Newspaper headlines scream across the front page the next morning.
Government officials call for new powers to combat such attacks.
Switch the location to the South China Sea, substitute pirates for the armed gunmen, and this is what the crews of shipowners face, dozens of times a year. . . The silence is deafening.