Tales from the Deep South, Part 4 - Such Audacity

   You would think that the first priority for a thief is not to get caught. A fact that necessarily makes him want to be careful when doing his business; waiting for the right conditions before carrying out his dirty deed, for example.

   Well, that was 'Stealing 101' a few years back it seems. That is if a burglary experienced by a neighbour recently is anything to go by. The burglars in this case were just too brazen. So brazen that a tenant decided to pack his things and leave the Deep South after this burglary.

   In the 'bonded' houses section of the Deep South the yards are very big. The owner of the house sometimes - in order to supplement his income - builds a one room dwelling structure at the back of the main house and lets it out. In this case it was something like a 'mokhukhu'/shack(similar to those found across from us in the informal settlement area). It had a corrugated iron roof but its walls were made of thin pressed wood slabs. 

   A few days ago burglars came to this particular house/yard and broke into the 'mokhukhu'  through a side door while the the tenant was away at work. In the process they stole a TV set. But what made this burglary galling was that it took place in broad daylight with the occupants of the main house still at home. These thieves seemed to have had all the time in the world to take the TV. Because they still took a bottle of coke out of the fridge and drank from it while disconnecting the TV, leaving the half finished bottle in the middle of the room as they left. And during all of this the main house people never saw or heard anything.

   Having your TV stolen in broad daylight while there are people in the yard is devastating enough. But what nearly gave the mokhukhu tenant a heart attack was when the same burglars(we think) came back the very next day to steal his hot plate stove this time, under the same conditions - in broad daylight with people present in the main house who never saw or heard anything. In this second instance the thieves simply removed one of the slabs of the thin pressed wood wall to enter the structure. Gaining an entrance this way is something similar to dismantling a shack basically. It shows unbelievable audacity.

   Needless to say, the tenant was livid. He went so far as to accuse the people in the main house of having a hand in the two burglaries. Something he could not prove of course.

                                            

                                            ( TO BE CONTINUED )