ROBBED! FINALLY!

Sooo.. it finally happened to my family. We were robbed. Well.. the correct term would be larceny.. but when have you ever heard anyone say they were larcened? there's even a red squiggly line under larcened, telling me it's not an actual word.. so yes, for lack of squiggly lines, we were robbed.

in broad daylight.

while my mom was home, watching tv downstairs.

around quarter to, ten to three yesterday afternoon two well-to do young chaps decided to have a go at our most humble abode. They cut the barbed wire that runs the perimeter of our back wall (we live in a compound) and then monkey'd their way up our water pipes onto our roof, from which they neatly pulled out my mom's bathroom louvres and gained access to her room. From there they locked her bedroom door (thank God) and had their way with her room. They knew she was home - our back sliding door was open and mom was watching tv, on the phone and in the kitched cooking. Unless they thought 'holey fuck! this is one haunted house!' they knew SOMEONE was home..

so they took what they could.. which was quite a bit when you consider the time they had (about a half hour). My mom heard a thud at around half 3 but didn't go to investigate (thank God again). We actually have video footage of them breaking in due to some nifty video cameras set up next door. Not good enough to see faces I'm afraid though.

so anyway.. I finally start gym and in the middle of my cardio my friend comes in to interrupt me and tell me my family's been trying to get in touch with me, we've been robbed. I'm choosing to not believe this was meant I should not start gym and am just going with very poor turn of events. So I get home and it's about 7 and they've called the police already.. but the police never show up until minutes to 9. surprise surprise.

SURPRISE SURPRISE though! they officers were.. NICE! not even nice, they were friendly, helpful and polite as well! I want to believe these were some of the better, very decent officers we still have in the country. What happened after further supports this thought as well.

So the officers left, after spending about an hour by us, taking notes, helping us to write down the relevant info, watching the footage etc. It must have been about 10 by the time they left. I changed the lock to my front door (they stole house keys that were in my mom's handbag..which they stole as well, though I don't think it was to get the house keys) and had a couple sandwiches. By 12 I was online, doing my online thing when my mom calls my sister and I downstairs to tell us they caught one of the guys (already!) and recovered one of our passports and a few other things (all our passports were stolen).

two hours. it took the police two hours to follow up a lead (which I think they had while still by us) and arrest one of the guys (there were two of them). So that sent me to bed with some better news than I got while on the exercise bike a few hours prior.

two and a half more hours pass and I am awoken from sleep by my mom, who tells me that they found some other very, very dear things to us as well. Even better news.

Two more hours pass (I shit you not, it was two hour intervals) and it's 4a.m. I am yet again woken by my mom, who now tells me that the police came back to check on us, went to search in the back of us, found her handbag and purse and a couple other things, including the rest of our passports and she has to go identify them at the police station.

and this is why I am up now.. waiting for my mom's return so that my sister can sleep.

within 15 hours of the robbe..I mean larceny, within 6.5 hours of the police being called and within 2 hours of the police leaving our home an arrest was made and items retrieved.

which recalls my stolen car incident some years ago; I was spending some time by a friend's aunt's house in town somewhere and had parked my car outside the house. The car was stolen around 10a.m. (again, broad daylight). I only realised it stolen at 4p.m. Made the report and whatnot and got home around 8.
9 o'clock and I get a call from my former residence, telling me a police officer was looking for me concerning my car. I get the officer's number and call. It turns out they found my car at around12.30p.m. (lunchtime or thereabouts) that same day - 4 hours before I realised it was missing. How they found it?: car search was looking for a certain car that was stolen. They checked out a known stripping spot (no, not Villa or Rich Gold or that place in town), saw a car that LOOKED like their car (but wasn't) and then came across MY car being opened and searched through.. they ran the theives and called the police.
I got my car back the next day. What alerted the police to the owner of the car (at that time my name wasn't on the insurance) was some correspondance I had lying on the floor of the backseat with my name and address on it.

God is looking out for me and my family. And we've been fortunate enough to have experienced the better, DECENT, PROFESSIONAL side of our country's police force.

I pray something like this never happens to any of you but if it does, I hope no one is injured and only material possessions are taken. You can replace a ring, you can't replace a mom.