September finished with a frightening event. The night guard knocked on my house window in the middle of the night and announced there was a problem. Oliver (dental gal), who lives in my house, came rushing into my bedroom/office exclaiming, “Mama, thieves!” This was a rough way to wake up.
I thought at first I was dreaming and, if so, it was a bad dream. You guessed it. It was not a dream. Robbers had entered my home by breaking a small hole in the front door window, just big enough to reach in to get the key from the inside lock of the door. Using the key, he --”I think it was a he because a woman could not scale the wall around the compound -- entered and invaded my privacy and my home.
I woke and followed Oliver into the front room to see broken glass on the floor, the door open and the guard standing inside. What had the thieves come for? Returning to my room, I soon found out. Well, to make a long story short, gone is my personal computer, a MacBook Air laptop, from a stand beside my bed. From the desk, gone are two office computers, my Amazon Fire (a gift from a dear friend) and my new phone. My old phone had finally given up the ghost, and I had to purchase a new one.
I was stunned. I know I was in shock. This could not happen. Unbelievable.The compound swarmed with people for the rest of the night. The night guards who were outwitted by the thieves.Their boss Benjamin was first on the scene. Then came my secretary Eric and his uncle; executive director Jean Marie; and HR person Juliette and her husband. Observing the pandemic rules, her husband wore a mask. I did not recognize him. Juliette did not say he’s my husband. She said he’s Edison’s father (tradition in Rwanda). Last but not least, the police arrived. The police deduced that someone inside the compound helped the thief or at least gave the thief information.
I don’t want to believe it was an inside job, but certainly the thief had to know my house well. Knowing the key was left in the inside door lock at night, which room was mine, where the computers were in the room and where the night guards were as they patrol at irregular times was no accident.
For me the realization of the danger I had been in became real when over and over my employees and neighbors came saying, “Thank God, Mummy, you did not wake up and you are alive.”
New steps have been taken to safeguard me and my home. A bit like locking the barn after the horses have been stolen. Restoring my sense of security will take much longer.
So many suffer because of the coronavirus pandemic, and many are desperate. This desperation has led to desperate measures. I hope the thief is feeding a family with the proceeds gained by selling the computers, etc. The theft is then at least doing some good.