Robber asks for tip for returning keys |20 March 2010

Requesting not to be named, the man was updating our journalist on a recent incident in which his building materials and a CD player have not been recovered despite anonymous tips that his timber is being used by a “rastaman to build a kabann” in the nearby forest.

The Cayole resident said he gave a statement to the police but he is not following up on the case because the last two times he called for help he got into trouble with the police and in one case paid compensation for damage caused to property in a scuffle with an attacker who chased him through town with a knife soon after completing a jail term.

He said has left the last incident to God and he expects the Lord to avenge Him “in line with Saviour’s promises to deal with his enemies”.

The Cayole man said the former jailbird was offended because an SPTC bus driver got his chance to leave the troublesome passenger behind when the victim was getting off at the Playground bus stop to go back to work.

“The matter was reported in the Nation and I don’t want to remember the issue as I had no money and had to pay the compensation is small amounts over many months,” he said.

“I called the police on telephone during the attack and when they came they took me to the police station instead, leaving the knifeman to get away. Other police officers told me who the former prisoner was and I made my statement thinking they would follow him but later I was summoned and asked to pay dearly for a dent made by the assailant on a parked car when I kicked him to ward off his knife attacks.”

The Cayole man did not mind talking about last year’s incident though he said it left a traumatic scar on his little daughter who had to be treated by the police for shock after she saw the attacker chasing after them with a sharp panga.

“I had a visitor from overseas but never got time for him so I asked my nine-year-old daughter to show him around the country. They were walking towards Anse aux Pins police station when they were attacked. The visitor had all my house and car keys. The attacker took all the visitor’s money, ticket and passport along with other documents.

“When the police failed to catch him, I drove around at night – because I was not free during the day – with a man who asked for R500 to arrest the thief for me so I could recover my visitor’s documents. We spent R250 on food and petrol but the thief was travelling quite extensively by taxi using my visitor’s money so we did not catch him.

“The following day another man offered to take me to the thief during my lunch break. The attacker was busy fighting with neighbours using big knives when we found him. The good Samaritan asked them to stop fighting for a while. They laid down their weapons and the robber joined us in the car and took us to two sites where he had hidden the documents and the keys.

“I drove them to Anse aux Pins and as they got out of the car I gave the R250 I still had to the good Samaritan in appreciation for his help. My visitor left the country by the next flight promising never to come back.

“I reported the matter to the Seychelles Tourism Board who pressured the police to arrest the attacker which they did. The police summoned me and asked me why I had not informed them I had found the documents and the keys. A lawyer advised me the attacker was below 15 and would only get a light sentence even if convicted,” said the Cayole man.

“At least the attacker was clever enough to know I was a poor man and he would find nothing of value in the house even if he used the keys to enter. But the man who broke into the house last week did not realise this and went to a lot of trouble to break my locks only to find nothing of value.

 “Even the LG CD player he stole is broken down and I was using it only to play Christian music without pictures,” the man said, thanking the burglar for returning the louvers “because I would not have had the time or strength to fix the windows after a hard day’s work.