Cops and Robbers

No work done, and I’m feeling a little weird and overtired too, so I’ll probably be a bit slow catching up with everyone. I was woken up by a big bang at three o’clock. Bella barked and then settled down to a steady growl. So I had a wander around, didn’t see anything obviously wrong, and finally put the kettle on. Then I noticed that one of the small windows above the sink was open, and the draining rack was knocked over. I never leave an unscreened window open because of my feathered horde so I closed it. And then I realised that a couple of containers that had been on the rack were missing. Nowhere to be found. Eventually I opened the kitchen door and got the fright of my life. Someone had tried to break in, and the security gate was all bent and broken.

When I went around the back to check things out I saw that the would be burglars had parked a couple of old plastic chairs under the window, and muddy prints of both bare feet and shoe prints told the story. So there were definitely at least two of the buggers. The containers from the rack were on the floor outside. Not sure what that was all about.

Two uniformed policemen arrived very quickly after being phoned. They took my statement and checked everything out thoroughly, and we had some very cool chats about the state of the nation and all sorts of things. They reckoned that it’s Zimbabweans who are committing the spate of violent break-ins around here lately, not wanting to head home for Christmas empty handed. Not too long ago a grandmother and her little granddaughter were badly beaten, strangled, and left for dead, all for the theft of a couple of bucks. It was a miracle that they both survived. Anyway, about twenty minutes after the uniforms left, a detective arrived and conducted another inspection, and found the point of entry by spotting a fresh footprint in a pile of old grass cuttings by the wall chop chop. Now I’m waiting for the dog unit, and the fingerprint people who will arrive sometime today.

I’m seriously impressed at their thoroughness, and really quick action, and especially impressed at the seriously book-worthy detective. He pointed out weaknesses in security around the house. He reckons there’s a spray the robbers use, and apparently it puts people into such deep snoozes that the thieves have been known to cook something while the homeowners are knocked out. He also said that if they decide to come back, they’ll probably bring cutters to take off the security bars at the windows I normally do leave open. No more open windows after lights out around here anymore. The best thing he said was that they’d be patrolling around here at night now, so that’s a real comfort.

We had robbers up in Zimbabwe cut a screen with a knife, and one of them was halfway through the window when he was spotted by a security guard, so that was one lucky escape, and now number two. It’s all a bit rotten, and given me the serious willies. These crooks tried really hard to get in. They moved a wooden reel under the lounge window and opened the screen from the outside, and clearly were desperate enough to not give a toss about the amount of noise they made. Apart from the worry that they’ll come back to finish the job, and from a scribblers perspective, it is a bit exciting. That would sound a bit twisted to a normal person, but writers aren’t really, as we know. So on the whole, I’m enjoying having police cars zooming in and out, and watching these guys do their work has been a real eye-opener for me. Not sure how well I’ll sleep tonight, but it’s nice to know that our guys in blue are out there. Anyone who chooses to invade people’s homes while they’re sleeping, with the intent to harm and steal deserves anything coming to them.