When You Get Robbed- Part 2

Tumie Modise | Monday August 24, 2015 14:58

That night of the burglary no sleeping took place in our flat at all. Every time I caught, a struggle on its own, my missing stuff would then just flash in my dreams and then I would wake up in a sweat and pray the whole robbery was just a bad dream. It did not help that the broken window was not yet repaired either. The next day, I went to buy new pillow cases.

After beating myself up for not burying my valuables in the yard every morning, my thoughts now turned to detective work. I have seen every episode of NYPD Blue, The Shield, and The Wire, and I am certain that, had I not been in school, I would have made an excellent detective.

Still refusing to believe what had happened, the following day, I bunked classes and walked around the neighbourhood at the same time our house was robbed the previous day. I talked to a few neighbors and chatted with the tuck-shop guy, even the car wash guys. Now robberies even make you suspicious of everyone, especially every male you meet on the street. Talking to one of the car wash fellas, I thought one of them could easily be a thief. It must have been his scruffy looks, because we all imagine a thief to look unkempt with an attitude to match. The tuck shop lady said she had just seen a suspicious car. She did not recall its make or its colour. But I doubt our guys had a getaway car waiting, let alone a taxi. All they took was really hand luggage.

Walking back to the flat moments later, I finally made peace with the fact that my stuff was really gone. I also came to grips with the fact that I do not actually own anything. I have no personal possessions. None of us do. We all just have some stuff that is ours until some highly motivated and unscrupulous individual decides he wants it for himself, most of the time they even pass it on to the next person on a small fee, usually a fraction of the real cost. So, yeah, just like communism. Apparently even Stalin was a cat burglar in his spare time. They caught the guy who robbed our house two months later. He was just 19 years old. Unfortunately, police did not recover our belongings, which they believe were quickly sold. Here’s how he was caught. The guy robbed another house nearby. That house was equipped with high tech camera system, which did not deter the robber, but nonetheless captured his face nicely. Like I said, you picture your robber as a maniac or a criminal mastermind, but this guy was pretty bad at his job when you consider that he set off our alarm and was caught on a neighbour’s camera.

Anyway, the cops knew what he looked like and because they apparently even have a ‘database’ of common criminals. They had no trouble locating him because a few hours later they informed us that the guy was sleeping comfortably at their cells, that we were free to pay him a visit. This was really pointless, considering he did not exactly take selfies while having a ball in our flat. So the following day we piled into the car and made a beehive for the police station. Only we got there and were told he escaped in the dead of the night together with three accomplices. My housemate then dropped me off at school and went to work, only we later arrived at home around 5pm that day to find the house burgled again. This time they ate our food, then used the loo.