To the readers; this post is not an invitation to my pity party (that ended a while ago) but i just want to share with you about the first time i got robbed. First let me send a shout out to the man who broke into the car and stole my laptop bag that had my purse in it; Congratulations, you are R 27 and [however much you sold my laptop for] richer.
So......3 weeks ago i got robbed of all my valuables (Laptop bag- laptop, Wallet- e-Reader, ID, Passport, Bank cards, Earrings (cheap rubies i got from my mother in 2011) and an EXPIRED myCiti bus card). Since I had never had an item lost or stolen from me in my 6 years staying in the "cities" i had always taken pride in the fact that i take very good care of my personal belongings (as contrasted to one of my close friends who has lost more that 5 phones in under 2 years), what i experienced 3 weeks ago was a humbling experience in every manner. I went to a staff meeting around 1 PM and was asked few minutes later to go check on something at the church building.
That fateful Monday afternoon at 3:30 when the security guard minding the building next door to my church building ran inside bawling in Xhosa "Someone is stealing stuff from your car!" (Translated) i thought he was mistaken, i imagined he must have been alerting one of the Xhosa guys i was standing with inside the building....Unfortunately the man was talking directly to me. I ran outside in disbelief , convinced that he made a mistake, when i got to the car the security guard knew what he was talking about ...behold!, there it was; the window smashed to thousand little pieces and my laptop bag gone...along with my self-esteem and will to live.
At the moment of realizing what just happened, in my mind the sky became grey and i heard a wolf howl in a distance. It started raining on top of my head although it was sunny in Port Elizabeth that afternoon. I had never ever in my life felt confused, violated and astonished at the same time. A large crowd was starting to draw near the now windowless car like a Paparazzi that had just spotted a famous celebrity in town.
One of the guys in the audience walked up to me and advised me to "Call the police",[i use the word audience coz it looked like a scene from a blockbuster film and in it i was the main actor] i have to say i occasionally get agitated and respond quick in stressful situations but at that moment i felt defeated. I just sat down on the ground next to the car. Minutes later i pressed my phone, opened the phone-book and called my sister who is in Pretoria instead of the police. After explaining to her what has happened she burst out laughing and i joined her, we laughed together for over a minute till i decided to face reality. 10111 was the 5th number i dialed, a policeman showed up 20 minutes near the scene and asked what happened then drove off . Anyways i had to replace my bank card and ID immediately, now i have an ID card after declaring that i won't get it anytime soon coz its too portable.
I thought hard about how different things would have turned out if i had been more careful and put my bag in the trunk but seriously, nothing really prepares you for a robbery like being robbed! Experience is the best teacher, sadly.
Today in addition of owning a new ID and bank card, i own a pepper-spray.
