Burglar Alert

Apparently, an unpleasant incident happened while I was in Pretoria last weekend.

A strange man came right through our always-unlocked gate and into our constantly-open door.  A few of my roommates were sitting in the garden.  The strange man looked around, immediately spotting a couple of laptops that were (naturally) left lying on the kitchen table, even though no one was in the kitchen and the front door leading into the kitchen was open. 

Bende (I think) soon came in and asked what the guy wanted.  He said he was from the electric company.  he was lying, because when he left, Bende's cousin followed him and confirmed he was lying.  He didn't stop at any other houses, and there was no sign of any official electric company vehicles or officials.  The guy simply wandered away. 

I'd always wondered why people execrised such a small amount of caution when it came to the house.  Why people left the door wide open when the only people home were in their room with their doors closed.  Why laptops were oten left in the kitchen with the door open, in full view of anyone outside and easily nicked through the open door.  Why there were bars missing from the gate, and the gate went unlocked.  Why there were more security holes in our house than a hunk of Swiss cheese.   Most people just laughed it off and said that's how the house was.  Nobody's laughing now.

Now, we are at least locking the gate in front of the front door.  Personally, I've gone back to my early-South-Africa practice of locking every valuable electronic device in my Samsonite suitcase, then putting it in an out-of-the-way place.  Thank the Lord -- only 2 weeks left...

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