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Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
I am a white African. Contradiction in terms? I think not. Sometimes my blog will be serious; sometimes sad; sometimes irreverent; sometimes witty; always my truth simply written.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Miracle?

I fully intended to write about something positive today, but just had to share this.

This week I had a dental appointment in South Kensington, Johannesburg. When I was finished I visited with some friends who have businesses in a small local shopping centre. As I was exiting the one business I noticed the owner of another small business behaving in an agitated fashion in the doorway of her party shop.

I later found out that apparently what had happened was that a woman entered the store but never pulled the security gate shut behind her. Inside the store she said she wanted to buy some sweets but just needed to check if she had enough money. Then a guy, who was waiting outside the store in a wheelchair, jumped out of his wheelchair and rushed into the store. Apparently the couple then started arguing and tussled their way right through into the kitchen area of the shop. At that point the flabbergasted owner pressed her panic button and rushed to the door to shout for help.

This was when they both exited the store again, the woman shouting that the man had her wallet and the man throwing it at her just before he hopped back into his wheelchair. The woman kept shouting that the man had 'started with me on the bus already' and that she had had R500 in her wallet which the man had taken. Throughout her theatrics she was flashing the contents of the wallet at the gawping bystanders, of which I was one, clearly showing us the money was still in the wallet.

While everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, and discussion turned toward calling the police to help the woman whose money had been ‘stolen’, the pair moved up the street, apart but quite obviously together, heading in the same direction, seemingly arguing as they went along.

The owner of the store had her handbag in the kitchen when they manoeuvred their way into it arguing vociferously but, when she checked the bag, its contents appeared to be intact. Perhaps if she had not been so frightened by their behaviour that she pressed the panic button they would have stolen it or actually robbed her of her takings?

Whatever their intention was, I am still marvelling at the miracle of the wheelchair-bound man who ran into, and out of, that shop! HA!!

One thing most South Africans have learned is that criminals do not belong to a specific gender, race group or age group, so we try always to be vigilant.


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