Lara made a dramatic turn towards the clock on the wall- it was 21:18. Her mum had been on the ‘phone with Emeka’s mum for over three hours and it did not look like they would wrap up their conversation any time soon. Lara needed her to see that she was perplexed that their call had carried on for so long.
Her mum deftly ignored the comical faces Lara was making- the squint, the pout, the eyebrow flashes and the side glances. Their tête-à-tête must have been juicy, Lara thought.
Indeed it was! By the time her mum emerged from the conversation, she was full of wonder.
‘Things are happening o!’, she said.
‘Emeka’s mum was just telling me what happened in her neighbourhood. I still find it hard to believe!’
Lara knew her mum was baiting her to ask for more. She decided to ‘fall’ for it.
‘What happened mum?’ She asked.
Apparently the gated community had contracted some workers to carry out the laying of interlocked stone roads along some paths and a fight had broken out between two of the workmen. One of them had struck the other with a stone and he had slumped. One of the neighbours had volunteered to rush the injured worker to the hospital while the community security team had apprehended the assaulter and held him down until Police arrived.
‘I hope the injured guy survived and wasn’t too horribly hurt’, Lara asked.
‘He survived’, her mum answered. ‘And they arrested the assailant?’
‘Yes’, her mum answered.
Lara was nonplussed- there had to be more than those few lines to their almost 4-hour phone call.
‘So what happened afterwards?, she asked. ‘A million and one things!’ She replied.
‘Apparently the entire matter had been an elaborate ruse to rob a particular house on the street while deflecting attention. While the commotion ensued, the security apparatus had been distracted and some elements of the scheme who had been tipped off by a former domestic staff of the house had gained access to the house, forcing their way in through a window. They made their way towards a targeted room that supposedly housed a huge safe with gold and foreign currency and that was when their troubles began. They reached the safe and found that all contained was books, photographs and what seemed like idiosyncratic family heirlooms of the nutcase that owned the house. There was entirely nothing of value to the intruders. The gleaming gilded walls in the safe must have fooled their informant, they reasoned.
They however presently had another big problem – a huge reptile appeared in the room from nowhere and began to slither towards them. Instinctively, the bigger of the two men hopped into the arms of his smaller accomplice who dropped him promptly and made to climb the burglary proofing as he tried to approach the door.
Unfortunately for them, the room was wired to automatically shut its door on forced entry from outside and could only be programmed to reopen with a specific pass code.
To cut a long story short, the burglars resorted to screaming ‘e gbawa o!’ (help!) after an endless struggle to stay out of the path of the reptilian threat and the realisation that they were stuck in the room. They had to be rescued by the security and were immediately arrested. They confessed all these at the police station and revealed their co-conspirators including the workmen who had been in the staged fight.’
Lara marvelled at her mum’s acuity and ability to remember all the details she shared, and then as if her mum could read her mind as she wondered how all these details came to light, she retorted ‘the CCTV gave away their hilarious antics in the room’. She thanked God for little mercies.
Written by Yetunde Adepeju Abatan
“FixorsHub is a premier platform dedicated to connecting skilled workers and handy people with individuals and businesses in need of reliable, high-quality services. Founded with a vision to bridge the gap between service providers and customers, FixorsHub ensures that every job is handled by experienced professionals who meet our rigorous standards. Whether you are a fashion designer, air conditioning technician, cleaner, makeup artist, photographer, CCTV technician, or in any other field, FixorsHub is the innovative market where you can monetize your skills and boost your income.
Whether you are a solar and inverter technician, event planner, mechanic, rewire, plumber, carpenter, graphic designer, digital marketer, or whatnot, FixorsHub is the innovative shop for you to turn your skills into money and smile to the banks. Registration is completely free — simply sign up at www.fixorshub.com to kickstart your journey as a FixorsHub Partner Service Provider.”
Leave a Reply