There was this particular night I was being disturbed by a running nose, so I took a pill. You know, those pills are 100% sleeping pills. That night, I slept very early and was deep into dreamland due to the effect of the medicine. Around 1 a.m., in the middle of the night, from my dreamland, I heard the general gate (a protector door) in our block slam so loudly, accompanied by deep footsteps of people running. In the compound, we are just three occupants, so when I heard the noise, I knew something must be wrong, either a thief entered our block or the thief was running away. I got up quickly, picked up my phone, turned on the torchlight, and headed outside. Only to get there and meet one of my neighbours—shirtless, wearing just boxers, holding a sharp cutlass in his hand—and he was panting heavily.
"Guy, what's that? What's happening?" I asked him fast due to curiosity.
"It's those guys that come and steal wire," he said. As he spoke, my heart jumped quickly, and I didn't even know when I ran in the direction he was coming from, just to see if I could detect them so we could catch them. But unfortunately, they were long gone.
Look at the situation: There has been a constant terror on our wires in the area. We would wake up and see that the wires in the compound—such as the ones used to extend electricity to an external shop, wires placed outside for generators, wires used to connect satellite dishes placed on the roof, and even those used to connect solar—had been stolen. They had been stealing these wires on a regular basis. We would replace them once they were stolen, and within a month, they would come again in the night and cut them off.
That night, I wished we had caught them. We would have beaten them up very badly before handing them over to the authorities.
Unfortunately, they had already succeeded before my neighbour could chase them away with the cutlass. They had cut all the wires, including the one I used to power my generator with the plug. That night, due to the heavy rush, they dropped and left behind one side of their footwear and also a face cap.
That night is one I can't forget in a hurry. I remember when I heard the strong slamming of the door—my heart left me. I was so shocked and thought maybe armed robbers had invaded our house, not knowing that there were actually armed robbers, but the low-budget ones we could chase away by ourselves. Lol.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Hive-reachout prompt of the week
Image used is mine