Of Neighbors and Thieves

We were invaded by thieves recently. Suddenly apartment tenants would find some of their things (sometimes lots of things) missing while they were working or in school. A broken window was all the burglars left. Thank God ours was spared.

This development (as if development is nice here) triggered a spate of buying all the kinds of locks sold in the market. Our doors in fact have four locks, and I mean four requiring keys while two more sliding locks if you are already inside. Sometimes, I have this weird vision of being pursued by a bolo-toting hooligan and was chopped to death because I could not open all them four locks!

One day a neighbor shouted KAWATAN! and all of us in the compound ran outside to see who was the thief. I only saw him jumped outside the barbed-wired walls of the compound, a cap partially covering his face. Just like in the movies.

A neighbor I didn’t like suddenly blurted out: Kakita man ko nya ato. Dugay ra man na sya sige sulod diri. Ana sya mokatkat ay.

If I had the powers of one of the Heroes this lady was already dead.

I remembered weeks before, our taxi-driver neighbor was ransacked while he was driving for his life. He came home with only a bed left by the thieves. This same woman, who would laugh like a hyena at three in the morning without even considering her neighbors were already having a deep relationship with their beds, told everyone she saw that same guy. As if she was proud she only saw the thief without even informing us in the compound, much less shout its presence. And here she was telling us again that she saw him. Again.

The more I hated her.