Larceny: Petty and Otherwise

Larceny, or simple thievery, is a sad fact of life here in Ghana. I am sure that it’s not particular to this part of the world, and that any and every developing county has its clear division of the Haves and Have-Nots. My husband and I, apparently to the minds of some quasi-socialist-leaning/Robin-Hood-Wannabee Ghanaians, clearly fall into the former category. In my opinion, we’re fast on our way to becoming a Have-Not.

On our very first trip to Ghana, back in the winter of 1990, I recall the first incident when we were “ripped-off,” to put it, if not politely, at least succinctly. I had with me a very nice Sony Walkman (which I had found on a park bench in New York City) to play the dozen cassette tapes I had brought along to pass the time. Remember, this is 1990 and there was only one television station which broadcast only in the evening. I left the Walkman in a drawer in my bedroom. Unfortunately, my (at that time) 13 year old step-son was playing with it and forgot to put it back where he had found it (and what he was doing inside my drawer, I will never know). He left it in plain sight on top of the dresser, or so he said. Later that day, after an electrician had come to the house to repair our ceiling fan, we noticed its disappearance. Easy come, easy go, right?

Sly had forewarned me that theft was very common, and I should always keep my stuff locked up. He told me a very entertaining story of an electrician who was fixing a light switch in his mother’s room who, with one foot wedging the door closed, was able to reach into the dresser and paw through her valuables. This was seen through her bedroom window by her daughter, by the way, so he didn’t get away with the theft. You know, in retrospect, it’s not so funny.

But, alas, that first incident of theft that touched us was not to be the last. There have been many (way too many) cases of pilfering in between then and now. I wish I could say that the thefts were all perpetrated by strangers. I want to say that. But I’m really not sure that would be the truth.

In some incidences, the theft occurred in the house we were staying at. When we moved to Ghana, we shipped all of our worldly possessions here. From the first house (my sister-in-law’s) in Mataheko then to the next house (another sister-in-law’s) to still another (my brother-in-law’s), those boxes have moved around a lot. Now, during each move, I was pretty vigilant about watching for someone rooting through my stuff, so I don’t believe a mover took anything. But I do recall that some things that were packed away – deep inside these big boxes – are the only things that are missing. Who’d have had the time to dig? Was it family, friends of my nephews or the house boy or house girl? All I know is that some things are missing. Actually, a whole lot of things.

The ones that sadden me the most with their loss are the things with sentimental value like the Hallmark Christmas decorations that I had collected when my children were babies – you know, Baby’s First Christmas 1995. Or the electric saw, drill and handmade tool box that my Dad gave me before he died; he said every home needed basic tools and these were his that he wanted to pass down to me. They may have seemed like trinkets and junk, but they were precious to me.

I really don’t know the full extent of the things that were stolen, and that’s because almost all of our stuff is still packed away in boxes. Eventually, when our Dawhenya house is finally finished, I’ll have to dig it all out and put it away and then I’ll have a clearer inventory of what we’ve got left. It doesn’t seem as much as when we first moved, though. Clearly, there’s been some attrition.

Some of the things that were stolen just had me shaking my head. Food from our pantry stock or freezer was always going missing – even food that we’d cooked and left on the stove to reheat later would mysteriously be depleted. We never could pin the theft on anyone until the one time we left the house for a few hours. We were staying in Nungua, at my sister-in-law’s house, where Sly oversaw her pure water business. The live-in “house girl” was a middle-aged woman named Mawuse, who was the sole financial support for her unemployed (and unfortunately, often drunk) husband and three daughters.

We had a large upright freezer in the kitchen, and when we got home from wherever it was we had gone to, I noticed that the freezer had started to thaw, and all of the food inside was defrosting. Then I noticed that Mawuse was sitting in her kitchen (which is a room adjacent to our kitchen), and that along side her was a large bucket of water inside which were several ice blocks – our ice blocks. When she helped herself to them, she failed to notice that our toaster’s electrical cord dropped down, and prevented the freezer door from closing fully.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “That’s kind of petty,” so why am I nitpicking? Well, it’s the principle of the thing! If Mawuse had asked if she could have some ice blocks, I’d have handed them over. No biggie. I’m really not cheap. I and Sly would often offer her or her kids food that we’d cooked. If we sent her or the girls to the store it was always with a “Thanks, and keep the change.” I also quite often gave her dresses and sandals for her teenage girls that I didn’t wear/need/like. And these weren’t hand-me-downs, because there was nothing wrong with them, just that they weren’t me. But, that! The ice blocks… I just didn’t get that.

After that, we put a lock on the kitchen door, and she didn’t have any access. All of the kitchen cleaning, cooking and dishes were done by me anyway, so it was no great loss.

Speaking of great losses, here’s a list (not all inclusive) of what has (so far) gone missing.

Sony Walkman
Hallmark Christmas decorations
Bed sheets – Sponge Bob (2 fitted)
Craftsman circular saw
Craftsman electric drill
Hand made tool box and miter box
Fisher Price power wheels ride on kids’ car
HP Photo printer, brand new in box, ran on 110 voltage – hope the thief paid a fortune for a transformer!
Electrical outlet boxes and switches (new, never used – $600 worth – from our as of yet unfinished house)
Various car parts – stolen from inside the car and from the garage
Plants in different growth stages, which we were nursing
Clothes – right off the clothes line
Television/VCR combo
Wooden doors and door frames (from our as of yet unfinished house)
Bags of cement and loose gravel
VHS tapes
Dozens of music CDs that Sly burned from friends’ collections
Cell phone – this was taken from Sly’s car while he was driving it
Gameboy Advance plus miscellaneous GBA games – recovered, because we knew the suspect and confronted him at his school with the evidence


And last (on this particular list), but not least (yet probably the funniest): Diet Pepsi.

The Diet Pepsi Saga: We had all gone to Dawhenya for the morning so that the kids could play soccer in the dirt or ride their bikes, which we had brought along with us. We also took a cooler bag with juices, bottled water, beer and a couple of diet sodas. There wasn’t any flowing water on the property yet, but we captured rain water that sluiced off the roof in large oil drums. We allowed the (then) caretaker (see above) to have his workers collect water for their work (block making factory), which was right outside of the property wall. Well, this one worker comes in and he’s pushing a wheelbarrow with a couple of empty buckets in it. I can see him pretty well, as I’m on the upper floor watching the kids play. He’s shirtless, wearing a pair of cut-off shorts and flip flops; on his head is a home-made hat, fashioned out of a cement bag. I don’t want to discuss the health implications of this right now (or ever, for that matter). Anyway, heading toward the house, the hat stayed on his head perfectly well. But as he’s leaving the house, I happened to notice that he’s clutching the hat with one hand, as if to hold it on his head from a strong wind gust and was struggling to push the wheelbarrow with his other hand. Not an easy task, I’m afraid. I really didn’t think anything of it… until we were on our way home. I went into the cooler bag to get my Diet Pepsi from it, and its missing. I ask Sly and the kids if they drank it. Negative, all around. I know no one else was on the property with us. The light bulb blinks on – that worker with the cement hat. That’s why he was holding onto the hat! He had a can of soda hidden under there! I’m prepared to let it go and chalk it up to experience. But not Sly. Sly drops us off at home and goes back and confronts the guy. First the guy denies it. Then, the other workers come out of the woodwork to point the finger at him. Then he admits it, and begs for mercy. This should be straight out of the stupid crooks handbook.

We’ve also been the victim of monetary theft, though not in the “gimme all your money at gun point” sense. Sly is as generous a man as you could ever meet. If he has the money and you need it, he will give it to you. There are several examples of this, where he’s been asked for a loan – 500 Ghana cedis here, a few hundred cedis there and 50 cedi loans more times than I care to remember. The vast majority of the people he’s loaned money to come up with excuses or evasions, but no money. I doubt we’ll see it.

Just some more examples of the Ghanaian socialistic realignment of assets, I guess. I wish it weren’t so. I want to say that you get used to the stealing, but I never do. Should I? Should I have to?