The NOVICE MASTER|Welcome to Uncle Che’s NOVICE MASTER. This blog is all about Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Home and Family, Personality and Self Improvement as well as personal opinions, reviews and lifestream

Very often, I refuse to listen to or believe stories about petit thieves and the type of crimes they commit, but I end up being forced to, due to the number of sources I hear such stories from.

One of the greatest fun about crimes is that criminals no longer wait for the night. Most thieves steal in broad daylight and get away with it. In big cities like the economic capital, Douala, stealing has become so rampant that some thieves have turned into bullies, harassing people and collecting from them even in the midst of hundreds of people and no one says a thing.

The hit and run thieves look for the slightest opportunity to snatch what you have and then disappear into the crowd. What they mostly snatch are purses and mobile phones, and at times money if hand held. Some specialize in using blades to cut open people’s pockets or cut of ropes of handbags and purses. Some pretend they want to use a commercial phone and once they are in possession of the phone, they just flee into the bush. This happened even here in Buea. One well dressed gentleman took a phone from a lady running and phone booth and pretended he wanted to call. As soon as he held the phone, he started running and although the crowd chased, they couldn’t get him. I laughed out very loud when I heard about this.

Now, let’s get back to the bullies. Stealing in broad daylight and getting away slowly and freely? Yes. The men are fun of collecting mobile phones from ladies this way. Just imagine a man walks up to a young lady, seize her phone and launches a few slaps against her face. He wil then pretend to be very upset with her and accuse her of leaving the house without letting people know her destination, or better still, accuse her of cheating and claim that he has just been told that she is from seeing her ex-boyfriend.

Passers-by will not understand the lady is being robbed and will just ignore the situation since the couple can better handle it themselves. Oh! What frustration!