Lesson Learned

Today I learned a big lesson about trusting people and got burned, so to speak, along the way. I had the workman from the curtain store come today to bring the curtain and tiebacks they forgot to bring last week when they installed our curtains. I brought them into the bedroom to work and got them set up and then went into my living room to get some things done. There were three guys and I thought it was a little overkill to just hang voile in the bedroom but didn't give it a second thought. Then about halfway through, one of them came out and told me that he had some liquid soap in his car. I though, "is this code language for something" because it just seemed so out of context and random. So at first I thought maybe he was asking for soap because he got dirty hanging curtains...but that didn't make sense...and then I thought maybe he's selling liquid soap and that's what it turned out to be. So I politely told him I did not need liquid soap and he went back to finish the curtains with the other two guys. They finished up and left. As I was heading towards our bedroom, I saw something glistening on the floor and realized it was one of my small diamond earrings. And for a moment I thought, that's weird because it wasn't here earlier and our housecleaner was just here yesterday so she would have seen it when she swept. And then I realized how it got there and ran into my bathroom attached to the bedroom where I keep my jewelry and low and behold, the little paper box I keep my small stud earrings was ripped and earrings were missing. I bolted down my stairs shaking with anger and caught the 3 guys just as they were leaving and asked them to come back to the apartment because there was a problem. So they thought I had a problem with the curtains but I brought them into the bathroom and explained that this morning, the box was not ripped and the earrings were all there, and now it's ripped and there are earrings missing. They just stood there looking at me stunned and then began insisting that they didn't do anything and did not step foot in the bathroom. I was so furious. I guess I didn't expect for them to just cough them up but it had to have been them. I was so frustrated and felt so powerless standing there that tears started flowing and then I thought maybe if I tell them that these earrings were really special and important to me, they might confess but no, why would someone who steals something actually care what it meant to the person they stole it from? So that didn't work and I couldn't think of what else to do so I just said, "I just hope that one of you didn't decide to make a stupid choice today" ...not the best line I could have come up with but that's what came out as I brought them to the door to leave.

After they left, I got even angrier because I realized the whole piece about the liquid soap was an attempt to distract me and make sure I was not entering the bedroom. So I decided that this store needed to know what happened. It's a very posh (well, posh for Ghana) and well-established store with a wealthier clientele made up of Ghanaians and expats and I figured these guys will just be encouraged to do it again since they got away with it. So as my driver, Frank, took me to the store I explained to him what happened and showed him the ripped box and he got furious. He said that I cannot trust Ghanaians because Ghanaians are black and according to him, you can't trust black people. This was hard for me to hear him say, and shocking considering he is Ghanaian and black, and I told him that I cannot think like that. I told him that people, all kinds of people, get desperate and do stupid things and that it does not have to do with them being black, but he still didn't agree with me. I think it makes him so angry to see this sort of thing because it confirms this belief that he has that black people are fundamentally inferior to white people. He said I should have gotten him and he would have taken them to the police station and the police would have made them strip to see if they had the earrings. So that's how things work here...there is no 911 and there is definitely a different system here for these kind of things so now I know that Frank and I should have done a "citizen's arrest" on these 3 guys and driven to the nearby police station. When I arrived at the store, the woman who works there who knows me now by name because I'm there so often, said, "Emily, they are supposed to be installing your curtains this afternoon!" and I told her there was a bit of a problem. When I told her, her eyes got wide and she shook her head and knew right away who at least one of the guys was because the bit about him trying to sell liquid soap sounded familiar to her. She indicated that there is one particular worker who sells this soap and so that must have been him. So in the end, the little scheme that he had to try to distract me wound up being the thing that helped the store identify him. I was put on the phone with the company's manager and explained what had happened. I was impressed with how professional and apologetic and responsive she and the lady at the store were because I really didn't think I'd get much of a response. The manager said that she would bring this to the company's owner's attention and perhaps they would confront the men and search them. I'm not convinced that will happen but certainly felt better having told the store what happened.

So I learned a lesson and that is that I will from now on both lock up my valuables when we have people doing work in the apartment and will have to watch them as they work. Both of these things challenge my desire to trust people and assume the best in people but losing two sentimental and valuable pieces of jewelry today was enough to teach me this. Who knows...maybe these guys will feel bad and cough up the earrings but I think it's unlikely.