I got robbed

no seriously though. i got robbed. at gunpoint. how cool!

i got home around 8:15 pm, said goodnight to sechaba and went to my room the read for a while before i would fall asleep. i was in the middle of a chapter and around 9 sechaba knocks on my door. there was a bit of urgency in his knock and he said “brian! its sechaba. open up”. so i went to the door and opened it.

as soon as i unlocked the door 5 or 6 (i forgot to country. sorry) guys with masks on came rushing into my house pushing me into my living room. 1 or maybe 2 of them had guns, and the others had crow bars or other metal things that would hurt if you got hit with them.

i moved all of my stuff out of my house on tuesday. in my living room there is a mattress on the floor and all my luggage scattered around the floor getting ready to be packed.

i think these “robbers” (they proved to be horrible robbers) were a little surprised to see so little in a house. as they started rummaging through my stuff i decided to get out of their way, so i sat down against the wall (i have no chairs to sit in). the whole time sechaba is talking to them in sesotho. it almost appears like he is arguing with them and trying to convince them not to take stuff.

they picked up my ipod and asked “what is this?” sechaba told them that i stored information on it and that they couldn’t take it. they said “ok” and gave it back. HA! then they picked up my video camera and sechaba told them they couldn’t have that either so they left it. stupid robbers. they emptied my wallet of the 90 rand (approximately $15) and they started asking about my cards. i told them that the first one was my ATM card and that it barely had any money on it (which is true) and i told them they could have it, but they didn’t want it. then looked at the credit card. i told them that it would work unless you have my ID card. so they left that too.

by this time i realized that i was not going to get hurt. these guys were actually quite nice about the whole thing. so i started giggling a bit because i just couldn’t believe this was happening to me. i was feeling nice and comfortable and trying to take it all in.

sechaba had been house sitting my neighbors place and he was watching ghost busters when this whole ordeal started and it was still on when they took us over to my neighbor’s house. they told us to sit down and sit still, so i sat down and enjoyed a few minutes of ghost busters as sechaba continued to convince them to not take stuff. (he did a good job) I was feeling so comfortable with my new robber friends that i decided to have a bit of fun. i was sitting there watching ghost busters and all this stress brought about a craving for a cigarette. i had one in my front pocket (they sell them 1 at a time on the streets here) (a nice feature for those who enjoy the occasional cigarette and don’t want to get addicted to them again) (and you can get 1 cig for 1 rand 50 which is like 10 cents) so i asked my robber friend if i could step out side and enjoy my cigarette. he politely declined and told me to stay seated.

they were working their way through the kitchen. they were hungry. when they first burst into my house they told me they were hungry and if we gave them 1000 rand they would leave. i didn’t have that so they started ransacking the fridge.

one guy had a very appetizing carton of orange juice he had taken from my neighbors fridge. all this commotion made me thirsty, so i asked him for some of his orange juice (it used to be my neighbors, but now it was his) he said “no, it’s mine now”. so i let go.

i also had to pee pretty badly so i asked if i could go pee. he didn’t trust me in the bathroom by myself so he let me go outside and i peed on the lawn so that he could see if i was going to escape.

i got back and sat down and watched ghost busters while these guys made their way through the house. they got away with a laptop (not mine. i decided to leave mine at work for some reason. i never do that) and me and sechaba’s cash amounting to a measly 150 rand (approximately $26), a jar full of coins, some food and a carton full of delicious looking orange juice, which they didn’t feel like sharing. so ungrateful.

after they left sechaba was telling me that he recognize one of the guys. we called the police they came and asked some questions and then sechaba realized where he knew this guy from. the guy who was doing most of the talking worked (apparently, according to sechaba) at a spice shop where sechaba buys all his spices. so we told the cops that and their checking it out today.

one of my goals in life is to be old and have cool stories. about 3 minutes into this ordeal i realized i would be fine and so i started to get a bit excited that this was happening to me, only because it was going to be a good story.

good thing i changed my ticket and stayed an extra week or else this would have never happened to me.

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