A Theft

Glenn Ripley, a veteran missionary on our team and head of the Pastoral Leadership Development team was burglarized. He was driving into a compound to assist with a pastor’s conference when his SUV got stuck in the mud. The compounds here can be really tricky and getting stuck in the mud is a common occurrence. When he realized that he was stuck, he got out of the car, locked the hubs in on the front tires to put the car into 4-wheel drive, and then got back in to try and back the car out. The car backed out of the ditch on the first try. He took a minute to pick a better route in which to get through the muddy compound street and it was at this time he was victimized. One of the bystanders, without Glenn knowing, opened the back door of the Cruiser, reached far in and took Glenn’s brief case. The Brief case had all of Glenn’s important documents, his digital camera, an I-Pod and 2,850,000 in kwacha (about $750 USD). He drove a good hundred feet before he realized what had happened, which was too late. 

The neat part of this story is what happened at the police station. Glenn along with a Zambian pastor went to the police station to fill out a report. After filling out a report, three plain clothed detectives, one with an AK-47 came out and said let’s go, meaning that Glenn had to take them to the crime scene. In Zambia, most of the police officers do not have vehicles. So they rely on the willingness of the victim for transport when doing detective work. So, Glenn, the Zambian pastor and the three detectives went back to the scene of the crime. Once there, the detective with the AK-47 stayed in the car with Glenn and the pastor while the other two detectives interrogated street vendors and other onlookers. By the time the two detectives got back in the car, they had a name and a location of the suspect. The story has somewhat of a good ending. A short time after they got this guy’s name, they apprehended him at a bar on the other side of town. Still in his possession was Glenn’s briefcase with all of his documents, his camera, I-Pod and 1,200,000 in kwacha. The police think the guy hid the other half of the money somewhere before getting caught.  So, even though all was not returned, a great amount of it was which was more than expected by anyone on the team.  Praise God!