Escaping The Grip Of Men Of The Underworld

I have always heard stories of robberies from my friends and neighbours but have not had a personal experience of such an incident. I lived in a neighbourhood that was quite secure but prone to the attacks of men from the underworld. They carried out operations on other neighbourhoods close to mine and succeeded most times.

My dad and I had just had dinner and I was about to go assist my mum in her shop when we heard someone running past our house and screaming "Thief! Thief!". We were surprised but could not get more information from that person as he had crossed over the fence beside our house to alert other neighbours. We hurriedly came out of the house to assess what was going on. Suddenly, one of our neighbours also running towards us informed us of the presence of the robbers. This news made it obvious to my dad that we needed to act quickly to keep protect ourselves.

My aunt who was looking after my siblings who were asleep in the bedroom was oblivious to what was going on in our premises. There was also a power outage during this period that threw our neighbourhood into darkness. This state of darkness made the activities of the robbers go on undetected. My dad swung into action and took measures to keep us safe. He assisted me to cross over the fence beside our house so that I could rush over to my mum's shop. He told me to inform my mum of the robbery attack and she should contact the police with the help of our neighbours. Mobile phones were not yet available in Nigeria at the time and neither did we own a landline. I was afraid and anxious about all that was happening. I was also worried about the safety of members of my family at home.

I got to my mum's shop and was pleased to know that she has been informed of the incident that was going on at home by our neighbour that crossed over the fence earlier . She was relieved when she saw me and embraced me. She asked me about the situation at home and afterwards we went to our neighbours restaurant that was close by. They welcomed us and tried to pacify us. They told us not to worry as the police had been contacted and were on their way. We appreciated their assistance and waited for the police to arrive.

Our hopes and worries were high. We had been at our neighbours restaurant for quite some time and the police were yet to arrive. We prayed for the safety of members of our family who were at home. After some time when I heard people screaming "Ole! Ole!(meaning thief). We ran outside the restaurant to see what was happening. People were chasing a man who ran down the road. He was a member of the robbery gang that had attacked us. Unfortunately, he escaped which was disheartening to those that chased him. The police arrived later to the displeasure of everyone. We were unhappy with their delayed response. The robbers carted away with some valuables from one of our neighbours but did not gain access to our house.

We were relieved to see my dad and other members of our family when they came to meet us at the restaurant. We embraced and were happy that they were safe. My dad told us he locked the entrance to our house and this prevented the robbers from coming into our house. We were glad that they were not hurt. We slept late that day as we discussed the incident for a long period of time.

This robbery incident made the residents in our neighbourhood put security measures in place. Most notably were the gates erected in the entrances that led into the area. A security council was also set up by residents. Residents became vigilant about activities that took place in the neighbourhood. When I reflect about this robbery incident I'm grateful that we were not harmed and commend the efforts of residents.

Have a splendid day folks.
Thanks for reading.

_{image source}