Robbery Next Door
Tumie Modise | Monday March 24, 2014 15:09
Some daring boys had somehow gained entry into my immediate neighbour’s house. Before anyone can say ‘ah, but people get robbed all the time’, let me hasten to add that this was not just an isolated and random robbery.
Although it turned out to be a not-so well orchestrated and successful robbery, it was a daring robbery nonetheless. For one thing, my neighbours happen to be four (4) Chinese adults; 3 grown up men and a lady.
Think Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan plus two extras! Secondly, from a distance, the house resembles a maximum prison, with an electric fence, a high wall, double burglar bars, a burglar alarm, a fire alarm and even a Trellidoor gate.
The first sign of trouble was the incessant barking of my two dogs, not very fierce looking dogs but still menacing and very loud.
Now most dog owners would agree with me that during the dog mating season it’s a futile exercise to keep waking up to every dog bark at night!
But still, the barking continued nonstop, later turning into sorrowful-like wailings. We cursed the dogs silently, but still ignored them. It was only some moments later that we heard what sounded like frantic footsteps, like somebody was racing towards the back of our neighbour’s house.
Still, there was no indication to us that something was amiss next door because this occurrence was nothing out of the ordinary where my neighbours are concerned.
You see, my Chinese neighbours are a hyper lot. For one thing, it is not a strange thing to hear them screaming or shouting at 1am, neither is it out of the ordinary to see them jogging around their house or even tumbling from their roof top and hanging upside down on top of trees!
It was only a few moments later after the piercing female scream that it occurred to us that there was trouble next door. At this point, our own dogs were now in a trance, as if possessed by some spirits.
I had the mind to look through the drawn curtains, and, lo and behold, two Chinese males were huddled up in a corner at the back of their house, just sitting down in total silence.
I have never come across any textbook or manual that tells you what to do when faced with a dire life and death situation. But I have it on good authority that with some people adrenaline just kicks in and spurs them into action, while the ones with weak bladders just give in to nature right there and then.
But notwithstanding, I had never before imagined my Jackie Chan-like neighbours cowering and screaming like terrified little girls at the sight of amateur thieves, never mind the fact that we have always felt secure having them next door for very obvious reasons.
In the midst of all the drama, somehow I had the right of mind to reach into my side drawer for nothing in particular and by the grace of God I got hold of the neighbourhood whistle which I immediately placed to my lips. I was later told the only thing I managed to do with the whistle was lick it before it fell from my shaking hands. Who wants to bring attention to themselves in such a situation?
Meanwhile though, the lone Chinese lady had now stopped screaming and was now frantically speaking in both English and Chinese, making no sense at all. It is still unclear where the third male occupant was at that point but it turns out he later had the mind to press the panic button which then alerted the security. Back in my house though, the only thing we could do was keep peeping through the window in absolute silence!
Desperate situations not always warrant desperate measures, now I know. Because only a few weeks later another homestead in my neighbourhood was attacked, only this time around a life was brutally taken. It’s incidences like this that remind us that we are just mere mortals.
Heck, it’s now common knowledge that Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden and other seemingly fearless men have met their makers in the least expected of circumstances, even almost cowardly like. The thieves were eventually arrested and most of the stolen goods later recovered by the police. As for my good neighbours, they have since obtained their hundredth dog, and the assumption is that this particular one will be around for longer and not ‘vanish mysteriously’ like the others before it. No pun intended, but it’s a dog eat dog world, so they say.