Crime

   Recently we have had a series of robberies and break-ins here on the Bible College campus where I live.  It is very frustrating.  We live in a world without forensic specialists. Even when there are fingerprints visible on the glass of a broken window, or spit on the rubber strap that a thief chewed threw, we cannot know who the culprit is. 

   For the past three months we have had a series of bold events. The evidence at some points leads us to believe it is someone who is familiar with our campus. At other times it seems to be a gang of strong men (how else do you carry 80 litres of fuel, a battery charger and a large battery).  We have talked with village leaders but they don’t know how to help. We’ve called in the regional police, but they too have trouble knowing where to begin.

  Less than two weeks ago, we got a break in the case, or at least that’s what we think.  One of the pastors awoke to the sound of someone on the tin roof of the school office. He and his wife assumed someone was trying to steal the solar panel. He snuck over to a neighboring teacher’s house and woke him up, then he snuck over to my house. 

This is a picture of the Bible college campus.  There are dorms, homes for pastors who teach here, and 4 missionary homes.

1. My house

2. The Bible college office

3. The home of the teacher who first heard the noise.

  I heard his voice outside my bedroom window around 4 am.  He was whispering so as not to startle the thieves.  We talked through the window briefly about options and then decided the best situation was to scare them away to prevent things from disappearing, even if that meant not catching them.  We were short handed that night as 6 of the men that regularly live here were travelling.  So as quietly as possible, I grabbed the car keys, a flashlight, a sweatshirt for myself and for the pastor who was outside in the cold with just shorts on. We tried to quietly get into the car, but it’s remote causes the lights to flash when unlocking the doors, then closing the doors and starting the cold diesel engine all took time.  Although it was only a couple minutes in which they may have heard us coming it was enough to give them a head start and they hid before we got there. We sped up the soccer field with High beams, and horn honking.  We woke up the rest of the people on the campus and the teenage boys came out with sticks to look for where they thieves may have hidden. 

   We drove to the village and got some men and the chief and came back and started to survey the seen. What we first thought was an attempt on solar panels was actually a robbery of the school office. They tried to tear up the tin roof and then eventually cut a hole in it.  Once inside this locked room of the building they gathered laptop, printer, cartridges, battery and solar charging equipment as well as many other electrical devices.  They were all piled up on the floor. A large laser printer was on the roof outside.  They rushed away and left most of it behind.  But the boldness of actually cutting through the roof is a bit shocking. 

1. The hole cut through the roof about 2’x2’

2. The solar panel we originally thought was the object they were stealing.

3. Where they tried first to pry up the tin roof,  but failed.

4. The roof where we found a laser printer, jacket and duffel bag.

5. A window, opened from the inside, where smaller items were about to passed through and through which the thieves communicated about what items to take.

6. The chair stolen from a classroom in another building used to climb up the roof.

  We found out they actually cut the lock off of a classroom in order to get a chair which they used to climb up on the office building. 

  They left behind a duffle bag, jacket with marijuana and a list of items stolen and sold in the pocket, and a pair of shoes behind.  This gave us some evidence to use. We drove all over the 5 village area asking about the jacket and things.  We eliminated several suspects, put one in holding, and eventually the police came. We still aren’t 100% sure who it was, but more and more we are leaning toward certain people.  In a country where justice is rarely given to the injured party, we aren’t sure how it will turn out. We are praying that, for now, they will be too scared to return because we scared them off and have their things.     We are praying for wisdom in how to prevent further thefts using our limited budget. 

  For the first several nights, anytime the tin roof of my house made it’s usual noises of contracting and expanding in the temperature changes, I woke up and was all ears.  When an owl landed on the roof and thudded around I almost called friends to wake them up and come help.  I do think the most frustrating part is the lack of peace of mind.  I know that while I travel over the next few weeks to do camps, now I will have to hire someone to guard my house overnight.  You would think that the bars on all the windows would be enough but not anymore.