Learning from Thefts

Have you ever been robbed?  I have and as I reflect on it, I have been robbed more than my share of times over my lifetime. Since it happened again last week, I decided to write about what I have learned. Maybe you can take advantage of my experiences!

Who gets robbed? Someone who has something of value, or perceived value, to someone else. The first time a thief found me was when I was studying in Paris in 1976. I had gone to the park with some fellow students and we didn't watch our stuff well enough. The person took my wallet – which had my passport in it too. I had to go through the hassle of getting a new passport – then, a month later, my old passport found its way back to me. Obviously what interested the thief was my money. From that, I learned to keep my money separate – in a separate wallet with id buried deeper in the purse and harder to get to.

That lesson served me well when I was traveling at the end of my studies. In the press to get on a train, a thief took my wallet out of my backpack – which was on my back. A pickpocket in the crush of the crowd. At least he only got some money! Lesson learned: keep your backpack locked and/or in front of you. I know someone can cut a backpack easily enough or take the whole thing, but pickpockets look for easy touches. Let them find someone else! I still travel with a small padlock on my backpack and even use it sometimes.

I want to state upfront that I am cautious of my “stuff” by nature. I have lived in big cities most of my life so none of this leaving the door open or unlocked when I am not near that door. Still, shortly after I bought the house I still own in Pittsburgh, I was robbed – twice. The house is on the corner of a main street and an alley. My side porch, on the alley, is set in such a way that no one can see the porch except those in the alley and someone in the kitchen of the house across the street. (I often took advantage of that – lying in a hammock on that porch looking up at the neighbor's trees imagining I was in a park...) But, this arrangement means that a thief can be on the side porch and few will notice. One day while I was at work, my neighbor saw suspecious activity on my porch. She called the police who came. They would not go into the house, though, since I was not home and they could see nothing – except a shovel in the living room. (That's what the thief used to break the window lock and get in.) Nothing taken then, but not long after the thief was back. We think he was after money for drugs, but never caught him to ask. There was no money to steal at my house, so he took what he could sell easily (not much) and left on the bicycle that was in the front hall.

Immediately afterwards, we made wooden pieces to stop the windows from being opened from the outside and had grillwork put on the window on the side porch. No more problems. Later, I had grillwork put on the front windows to match so that I could leave the windows open in the summer and get a great cross breeze with no danger of unwanted intrusion. If you make the grillwork fancy, it doesn't feel like a prison... Security has its price.

Do you count it as being robbed if the thief leaves you something?? Another time, in Pittsburgh, about an hour after I left for work, someone put a car in my garage, stripped off the tires and left it on blocks. The garage I used at the time was a stand-alone across the alley that had no door (despite the lack of door, it kept the car out of the weather). How do you get a car out of such a garage when it has no wheels? I think the police or tow people had to bring tires/wheels. It was probably stolen from a nearby university, but I never found out for sure! The garage owner installed cheap particle board doors, but at least you couldn't see if there was a car there or not – or leave someone else's stolen car... (Not too long after that, I had my own garage rebuilt to make it usable (with a main car door) and including a door directly into the basement – a great advantage in the winter and rain.)

The most recent theft happened at my house in Garoua Boulai on Thursday, October 15. (It had been more than 20 years since the last theft.) This house has grillwork on the windows. There are two screen doors that allow for great ventilation, but they both have latches so people can't just walk in. Most of Thursday, I was working at the house, preparing food in the kitchen, doing dishes, working at the living room (office) table, etc. About 2:45 I took a break to do some things in the bedroom. Half an hour later I came out to get something from my purse and couldn't find it where it usually is. Strange. I thought maybe I had left it at a friend's where I had visited earlier so I looked for my phone to call and ask. I couldn't find it either. When I walked into the living room and saw my computer gone, I knew I had been robbed. I am thankful that I didn't come out of the bedroom while he was in the house. He had torn the screen and reached into unlatch the door. In all, I guess he was not in the house more than five minutes.

As in the US, one has to make a police report. Here, we went to the station and they sent a man to look at the situation. Then I had to go back to the station twice the next day. They are trying. I got a call yesterday saying they had found a computer. Unfortunately, it wasn't mine.

What I am most bothered by is the fact that all of my work on the computer is gone. Not only that, he also took the external hard drive I got in August to back up my work! All of my documents, photos, etc. - gone. And, because he took my purse – to look for money later, I am sure, he also got my passport, residency card, camera...

So the lesson from this theft? Back up your work! I know, I had backed it up and lost that, too, but I have since realized that I have the old USB flash drive backups that I left in Philadelphia. It will take a month or two for me to get them (flash drives are not something you can send in the mail and expect them to arrive), but I will have 80% of my work or more. All my photos, blog entries, work documents, reports received... A huge relief, even if I have to wait a while to get them. So redundancy is good. Back things up several places! It is a pain to do and to remember to do, but if you have a theft like I did, you will know that it is worth it. (Oh, and don't keep the backups in the same place as the computer. Another room is good – or a safe...)

It is also worth getting renter's (or home owner's) insurance. There is paperwork to fill out (more) and I am still waiting for an estimate, but it looks like the company will pay for most everything (minus my deductible). They don't pay for time lost getting everything back in order, but getting new stuff is a relief!

Also, living in the digital age makes a huge difference. I had put copies of my passport and other important documents up in the “cloud.” I had also saved a list of my frequently used sites and passwords up there. I could also get back many documents sent or received by email from the last month (from my sent mail and trash). All is not lost – it just takes a long time to sift through and get it back.

We are now working to replace the screen door – more grillwork – so that even if the screen is cut, no person can enter. It will operate with a key so that reaching in will not enable the person to open the door. The grillwork is not a fancy or pretty as what I had in Pittsburgh, but it will do its job.

Meanwhile, I have borrowed a computer and a camera that church programs in the CAR had ordered. They have been waiting until they could safely cross the border and get to Bouar. (See the picture with computer and a new smart phone I bought and haven't yet figured out how to use.) Catherine Naabeau has generously given me permission to use the computer until I can get another. (She benefits, too, because I am installing programs and updating what is needed.) The computer is in French, though. I could put the programs in English, but then would have to switch them back when I get my own machine. This process of adjusting to a new machine is a pain. I know some things the computer is supposed to do, but can't find how this one will do them. And, this word-processing program keeps jumping the cursor back a line or highlights and erases a line when I don't what it to. Plus, 2 of the 3 USB ports won't read. I can't find the dictionary that will run spell-check in English. (Please excuse the increased number of typos.) All of these are details that can be worked out (especially because the computer tech for EELC is working at the hospital in GB. He has already helped me once and I am compiling a list of questions to see him again.

Yesterday, I went to N'gaoundere to apply for a replacement residency card. Next week, I go to Yaounde to the embassy to apply for a new passport. (I delayed hoping that the passport would be thrown on the ground and found by someone who would return it to me. No luck yet.)

Over the years, my losses seem to have come in pairs. Hopefully not this time...

P.S. No pictures this time. How can you take pictures of what is gone?? And, since most of my saved pictures are gone... (Sigh)  I had 3 pictures ready to insert, but the internet connection is VERY slow and the phone networks have been bad.  I figure it's better to get the news out and do pictures some other time...

Interesting note: I have often heard the expression that something smells like rotten eggs – you know that sulfur smell? I realized yesterday that I had never actually smelled a real rotten egg. The smell is 10 or 20 times as bad as they say! I had two eggs in a bowl. One was in some liquid so I decided to break it open to check it – even though I did smell the bad smell a little. Mistake! When I tapped the shell, it sort of exploded. The yolk was black ahd the smell intense. (So, even though the shell was not cracked, I guess the rotten stuff can leak through. Who knew??) I cleaned things up, took out the trash with both eggs – the second unopened, and was glad I would be away for 24 hours so that the smell could dissapate! I have a new understanding of the smell of rotten eggs...