Last
Wednesday my boss’s laptop got stolen from our offices in Wynberg. The day was
going slowly because our project was in a temporary period where a lot of our
work had to be stopped temporarily. After a few hours of work our boss, Bea,
came to talk to us in the conference room where we were working. Bea, Molly,
and I were the only people in the office at the time and our office door is
frequently left open as our staff frequently moves between our office and the
Refugee Center’s office next door.
After Bea
talked to us for a few minutes we were all getting up to take a break when she
saw someone rushing out of her office. We didn’t recognize him so we went after
him. Bea quickly looked into her office and saw that her laptop and cell phone
had been stolen. The man ran out our office, down the stairs in front of our
office, and across the parking lot. Bea yelled to the security guards that he
had stolen her laptop and then went running after him. I followed behind them,
taking off my flip-flops half way through the parking lot because I couldn’t
run in them. The security guards were wearing bulletproof vests and carrying
large automatic weapons. At the end of the parking lot was a small set of stairs
that led into a small tunnel. The guards seemed to stop at the tunnel so I
slowed down, assuming that they had stopped him. I quickly found out that they
had just stopped after only chasing him for a few yards. So I started running
again and the people attending the stalls that lined the street pointed me in
the direction he had gone. After a few turns I ended up at a minibus station at
the intersection of three streets and no one was pointing where he had gone
anymore.
A woman had
followed me and helped me ask everyone around if they had seen the man who had
taken Bea’s laptop, which was a great help as she was able to talk to people in
Xhosa and Afrikaans. Even with her help though we were unable to figure out
where he went. We walked back to the office and along the way a woman took us
to the side and told us she recognized the man and knew his name. After getting
his name, I thanked both of the women who had helped me and returned to the
office. Bea called the police and we waited. Even with the name of the person
the police were unable to do anything about the theft because Bea did not have
the exact serial number of her laptop.
Obviously
this wasn’t a great experience. A man had stolen Bea’s laptop, the security
proved fairly useless, and the police were not particularly helpful either.
What was nice about the experience was how eager everyone on the streets was to
help us. People went completely out of their way to assist me in whatever way
they could. Also, when I returned to the office, Bea was far calmer and more composed
than I know I would be had I been in her position. She was looking completely
on bright side. She was just happy to see that the thief had only stolen from
her and hadn’t tried to harm anyone. Overall the experience showed how even
though a community, city, or country may be labeled with a high crime rate, the
community, city and country are not defined by this as far more people in those
communities hate that crime more than participate in it.
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