THERE AND THERE– BY PHILIP CHIRWA

KIDS CORNER ENVELOPE CONMAN

A LARGE crowd of people gathered outside the Lusaka City Council Library on Katondo Street. The centre of attraction were five people – two Mobile Police Officers in combat gear and black berets, a respectable-looking gentleman immaculately dressed in a navy blue suit and sporting a well-trimmed moustache, and two bare-footed boys aged about 12 years.
It was quite an unusual combination, one might say.
As is usually the case with most street incidents, it was extremely difficult for a new arrival on the scene to immediately discern what was going on.
It was apparent, however, that it was the immaculately dressed man in the navy blue suit who was in trouble over something. The two boys, on the other hand, just looked on in silence.
“Believe me, officers,” the suspect was speaking, “These boys are not telling the truth. I have not seen them before and they know it. God is my witness.”
“But he is the man who stole our K20, 000 (unrebased),” one of the boys challenged him. “We have not made any mistake as regards his identity. He is the thief and we demand that he gives our money back!”
The two police officers appeared to be at a loss. On the one hand, the suspect appeared to be a very respectable member of society. On the other, the two boys were insisting that the man was actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whose word were they to believe?
The suspect had been “fished out’ of a nearby restaurant where he had been having lunch with a female companion. The boys had identified the suspect to the two police officers as the person who had tricked them out of K20, 000 in Kamwala trading area some weeks before.
The boys had been sent by their parents to buy wheat flour from a National Milling Company (NMC) depot in Kamwala. They were travelling on a bicycle.
As they approached the depot, which was located at the site of the Old Kamwala Bus Station, they were confronted by a short and stout man, light in complexion and smartly dressed in a navy blue suit.
The man accused the boys of having hit an Indian boy with their bicycle. Knowing that they had not done any such thing, the boys told him he was a liar.
“Where is this Indian boy you say we have hit? We have not hit anybody, although we admit that our bicycle has no brakes,” they told him.
The stranger looked at the boys suspiciously and swore that they looked exactly like the boy who had hit his master’s son only a short while ago.
“If you think you are innocent, you have to say so at the police station. Accompany me to the police station,” he told the boys who had no choice but to comply with the order.
As they were walking to the “police station,” the man suddenly stopped and asked the boys, “Do you have any money and other valuables on you? One of the boys called Andrew said his mother had given him K20, 000 to buy flour from the NMC depot in Kamwala.
Andrew then produced the K20, 000 in two K10, 000 notes and showed it to the man, who took it, looked at it and said, “Foolish boy! This is not the way we keep money.”
He then took an envelope, enclosed the K20, 000 in it while the boys looked on and handed the envelope back to Andrew’s friend.
To the boys’ surprise, the man got back the envelope from Andrew’s friend and put it in his breast shirt pocket, saying, “This is how we put money, not in your short’s pocket. Do you get me, my son?” he asked and the boy nodded in agreement.
He then whipped out what appeared to be the same envelope from his breast shirt pocket and handed it over to Andrew who put it in his own pocket.
The man then said, “Remain here. I want to go and collect a ball pen from that building over there so that I can sign the envelope before we go to the police station.”
That was the last time the boys saw the smartly dressed man that day; for he disappeared. However, believing that the envelope they had contained the K20, 000, they cycled to the NMC depot to buy their flour.
Much to their surprise, when Andrew opened the envelope, he found it filled with useless pieces of paper!
He started crying.
Although the parents appreciated his predicament and did not punish him over the theft of the money, Andrew was determined to find the culprit.
A few weeks later. Andrew and his friend went back to town for a routine visit and lo! As they passed one restaureant, Andrew recognised one of the men having lunch with a female companion at a table inside. The man was light in complexion, short and stout and wearing a navy blue suit,
Both the boys recognised the man as the person who had tricked them out of K20, 000 in Kamwala some weeks back. They therefore started looking around for people to assist them to apprehend the suspect.
Fortunately for them, they saw two Mobile Police officers passing by and approached them for assistance.
The suspect was subsequently taken to the Lusaka Central Police Station where, upon being searched, he was found in possession of a lot of envelopes containing useless pieces of paper and several forged cheques worth thousands of kwacha…
.The author is a Lusaka-based media consultant and a freelance writer. For comments, sms 0977425827, whatsapp 0777259558 or email: pchirwa2022@yahoo.com.