Three weeks ago, as two colleagues and I were returning from research duties in town, their need for a quick bite and my need for ipod earphones took us to the Accra Mall. It was a busy afternoon and there seemed to be security officers around as we parked our vehicle and headed into the mall. An hour later, as we approach my car, one of my colleagues excliams, "the laptop is gone". Genuinely surprised, I asked, "which laptop"? Apparently they had left a laptop in my car without my knowledge.
You see, I have on several occasions insisted that they put their valuables in the booth for safety's sake. Heck! even the booth is not safe but it's better than in the car, right? Anyways, the culprits jimmied the lock on the passenger door and made away with a Compaq laptop, car keys, mobile phone chargers among other things.
Now, to the main issue of discussion, I must say that the security officers handled the issue in a very unsatisfactory manner. They seemed to doubt our report. Seriously? Like I don't have anything better to do than cry theft. After demanding to see their boss, they went to the CCTV room and came back to tell us that they saw the culprits but because our car was packed far away from the camera, the images were blurred. Unbelieveable! They couldn't even give us the license plate number of the vehicle these thieves went away in. After all, they saw the vehicle and since there are several cameras at the mall, at least one would have picked it, right?
So after wasting two hours at the Mall and another hour at the Airport Police Station, we lost hope. Not only did we lose a laptop, we lost our appetite and I personally lost the will to leave my car at the Mall's parking lot for more than 10 minutes...Anyway guys, if you ever thought that place was safe, think again. these people could have driven the car away.
