From the college days A theft I foiled
July 26, 2013
My friend
It was examination time at the college and we were forbidden from carrying our mobile phones to the college. Those who had taken it had to turn it off and surrender it to the invigilator in charge, who would put it on the table. Students had to collect their phones from the desk, after the exam was over. Now, there was no explicit means of ensuring that students upon finishing the exam left with their own mobile phones! There was no means to ensure that a student who came to the exam without a phone did not leave with somebody else's phone! The invigilator or the college was not responsible for the safety of the mobile phones (which were not supposed to be brought to the college on exam days, in the first place). It was believed that nobody would indulge in such an act. This belief was proved to be ill-founded on one occasion, when a senior found that his mobile phone had disappeared. Initially, he was optimistic that it might be a friend playing a prank on him, but hopes quickly evaporated when all of his friends assured him that they'd not taken it. He requested everybody still present to inform him if anybody knew anything about his missing phone, but it seemed that this wouldn't end on a happy note for the victim.
Three days passed. It was the last day of the examinations. After the exam ended, I went to a nearby eatery along with a bunch of my classmates, to relax and discuss holiday plans. When we were enjoying our snacks, a classmate's phone rang. He silenced it without attending to it, but it rang again. This time, he pulled out the phone and there it was, a phone of the same model and color as the phone lost by our senior. I wasn't sure that it was the same phone, but I had my doubts. It was a rather uncommon model and I knew that this guy did not have that phone until recently. When I discretely asked him about the phone, he said he'd bought it used from the grey market. During our conversation, he told me that he was leaving for his hometown, a few hundred kilometers away, the same evening. I didn't pursue the matter of the phone further and we went home. After reaching home, I was more than certain that I'd made a blunder: the phone had indeed been my senior's and I ought not to have let my classmate get away with the tall tale he'd given me. I felt worse because in a few short hours, he'd leave for his hometown and the phone would become untraceable after that. If I wanted to do something to ensure that my classmate did not get away with theft, I had to think and act quickly.
I called my classmate and told him quite bluntly that I knew that the phone he had with him, belonged to our senior; That it had been stolen. He denied it at first, but when I stuck to my accusation, he wilted and confessed. Yes, he'd stolen it, but it had been done on a sudden impulse. He regretted having stolen it, but now feared that he would be labeled a thief, if he tried to give it back. At this point, I made him my offer: If he were to meet me and hand over the phone to me, I'd see to it that it was returned to the rightful owner, without him getting identified as the thief. He accepted, and we agreed upon a meeting place not too far from the place where he had to catch the bus to get to his hometown. However, just before he hung up, he made a veiled threat about him not being 'alone'. I only started worrying after a little while, as the meeting place which he'd suggested and I'd accepted was a slightly rough part of the city. I was quite ignorant when it came to things 'extracurricular' and this was certainly not my cup of tea! Now I began to get nervous about the prospect of meeting my classmate, in a rough part of the city, all alone, especially in the light of his veiled threat.
I called another friend who was more knowledgeable about these matters and narrated the whole story. He chided me intially for jumping headfirst into something that was not my business, but later agreed that it had been the right thing to do. He asked me to delay the meeting by twenty minutes, which would allow him and a couple of his 'strong-arm' specialist friends to do a discrete reconnaissance of the meeting place to ensure that my classmate didn't have any funny ideas. That arranged, I made my way to a little distance from the meeting place and nervously waited for my friend's 'all-clear' call. It came in a few short minutes. My classmate had made a last-ditch empty threat, to deter me, but didn't really have any resources to back his threat. I moved in and for dramatic effect, my friend and his men swooped in, causing my classmate to break out into cold sweat! I quickly reassured him that all would be well if he held up his end of the promise. He handed over the phone asking me once again to promise him that his name wouldn't be outed. Having received his reassurance, he quickly disappeared. I think his bladder needed urgent emptying! I thanked my friend for his help and he went his way.
The phone now secured, it was time for phase two of my plan! I got in touch with another friend of mine who'd ensure that the phone would get returned to the original owner, without my ever having to come into the picture, thereby also ensuring that my errant classmate's name stayed clear of the mess. I identified the number of a friend known to my senior, from the list of contacts on the phone and asked my friend to call that person and give him some tall tale of having found the phone in some public place. That friend would be able to setup a meeting with my friend and the senior and everything would be fine. This part of the plan went really smoothly. My senior, when he heard from his friend, was overjoyed at the news and got in touch with my friend who set up the meeting at a place close to his residence. The senior showed up and was reunited with his phone. He was so happy to get the phone back that he didn't really bother asking any further questions. It was a win-win situation for all concerned. I got the satisfaction of ensuring that an act of theft got foiled while seeing to it that my idiot classmate's reputation was not besmirched. I can't look back upon those memories without smiling to myself. Those were crazy days and we sure did crazy things back then!