Since I got the dog, I haven’t walked home much because I
don’t want to walk for 1:20, get home at 6 and then take Zu for an hourlong
walk. I’m mostly taking the shuttle home but on Fridays, if it’s not too hot or
I’m not lugging a bunch of stuff home, I still like to walk.
It’s really a lovely walk, or most of it is, anyway. In my
mind, it’s a video game that I’ve broken down into 10 levels, each with its own
challenges. For example, leg 3 is the longest one – so long I break it down
into three smaller sections – is beautiful but has people pushing or pulling
carts through the potholed-filled roads, random zebu blocking the path and
motorcycles or bicyclists passing and kicking out exhaust or up dust/mud.
Other challenges include a narrow bridge, traffic, hills and
cobblestone roads. At no point has “fear
of being mugged” entered the picture. Until Friday.
My week was rough, and I looked forward to the walk and
listening to Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which someone recommended.
And I did enjoy it – through level 3, most of 4 and then 5. But 6 went sideways
– I had my phone snatched!
 |
| https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61qV0ieP64L._SL1500_.jpg This is the book I was aborbed in. |
A couple minutes later, they passed me. Again, not unusual –
think of all the times this happens in cars. But then one slowed up and I
passed him, and I remember thinking, “Hmm, I don’t like being between these two
guys; I will slow down and let that one catch up.” And he did, so they were
again together.
Then they slowed their pace slightly. At this point, I was
coming up to level 4, which is where most people go left but I job right down a
little hill and then wind around to the narrow bridge before hitting 5, which
is the stretch between the airport road and the bridge – the big road I cross.
I slowed some more, which was starting to get a little weird, as it seemed
really slow. But at that point, I had a Spidey sense that something was off
- except I had no idea what to do with
it.
Right where 3 switches to 4, I fully expected them to walk to
the left. But they stopped completely – lighting up cigarettes (which not people
do, incidentally) and I didn’t see that I had a choice but to keep going. I
nodded to them as I passed -- bonjour –
and kept going.
I tried to walk really fast, but I got caught behind parents
with two small kids on the narrow bridge and I couldn’t pass, plus there were
two people on bikes coming the other way, right before a guy with a giant sack
of some sort. Basically, I couldn’t go fast. And I tried to check behind me to
see if they’d turned, but I did not see anyone.
So, honestly, I forgot about it. I took a stop on the
airport road to take a sip of water and turned down a narrow passageway, then
exited to the cobblestone road that is level 7. Not five meters in, I suddenly
heard footsteps and felt a bump.
I knew exactly what happened – someone grabbed my phone and
took off. As it’s a little street, there were people everywhere and they
started yelling and I took off after the guy – and so did they.
I am not fast, but they were. I ran back down the narrow
passageway and to the road, where the guy was already 100 meters up. I was yelling
STOP HIM! (in English, so not helpful) and others were also yelling, pointing
and chasing. This was pure Willie Nelson
-Toby Keith justice, and, as people joined the chase, I honestly started
worrying what would happen if they caught him.
He got to an intersection with a little road, and I could
see other passers-by pointing where he was going, and about that time, a guy
pulled up next to me on a motorcycle, asking what happened. It took a second to
register it was a colleague, and then I pointed and said that guy had my phone.
So he took off, and I really have no doubt he saved the guy’s
life. He told me later the crowd was wailing on him, and then a police officer
(somehow) got him and was holding him but not making the crowd stop beating him
up.
Eventually, the crowd helped me catch up to the cop and the
perp, but another cop had my phone. (Seriously, I have never seen a patrolling cop,
so I have no idea where they came from.) I was told I needed to go file a
report, and I thought they meant in the police van. I went to the van and, lo
and behold, the perp was also in the van. And I wasn’t giving a statement
there; I had to go downtown.
Possibly that was the most surreal part of it – being in a
police van, sitting in front of a guy who’d robbed me, lights on and all. And
by “van,” think something probably minted in 1972, with no seatbelts, pretty
much no upholstery (and certainly no A/C – the windows were open) and a sliding
door that didn’t close. But hey, we had a light and a siren, not that one can
generate speed on the roads of Tana.
In the van, looking at the guy, I realized he must have been
one of the two I’d seen before. I asked him (in French) if he had been
following me, but he didn’t respond. I did not tell the police about that
suspicion, but filed a just-the-facts-ma’am report. Fortunately, my colleague
didn’t listen to me when I said to not bother coming down to the police station
with me and followed me to the police station. I hadn’t realized it was going
to be the main one and assumed that it would be fairly nearby. Had he not
followed me, I have no idea how I would have gotten home.
I did, of course, call out security team and reported it and
all, and they offered to come give me a ride home, but my colleague had a
motorcycle, meaning we’d get home at a reasonable hour. The traffic at that
time of day is a complete standstill, so we weaved in and out and got home just
before the rain.
I haven’t told too many people here, although I did run into
the colleague who recommended the book and jokingly told her I’d gotten robbed
and it was all her fault. (Mental note: when security says to not carry your
cell phone in your backpack pockets or listen to headphones, listen to them!)
But word gets out at a small post and I’m already being asked if I am OK.
And I am. I wasn’t mugged at knifepoint; it was the
equivalent of a smash-and-grab. I’ve no idea how he did it so fast, really – I can’t
pull the phone out of the pocket easily myself.
God looks out for me, and did, not only sending the colleague
my way but through all the people who made sure the guy didn’t get away with
it. And, by my colleague’s estimate, it was
over 100 people. They have no idea who I am, but they saw what he did and came
to help.
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