I become a Detective

We carried some VISA travellers cheques with us and we hid them in our suitcase. We lived out of our suitcases because we had no bedroom furniture as such. One day Mags, like all 'Scrooges', decided to count them, only to find they had gone missing! The amount was USD 1000.00! Immediately we contacted our NZ Bank and found that of the 11 cheques stolen, 5 had not yet been cashed - so payment on those had been stopped. Of course this meant going to the Police Station for a report, without which, we could make no insurance claim.

The Arusha Police Station is a busy place, and perhaps difficult to negotiate, but when it was my turn, I had no problem with the officer who filled in his big log book. The actual report was a problem because there needed to be a carbon copy and the carbon paper was nearly worn out and he was unable to find a pin to hold the sheets together. After a runaround between offices I got my report after paying the nominal fee.

I was particularly sad because this was the last day Missy would be with us but I had to ask if she was the one who stole the cheques. She denied it, but I had to ask the question because she had troubles that I have no right here to write about. Missy is still our dear friend and she continued to stay with us after this event.

Through faxes via BNZ Oamaru and the VISA office in England, we found that USD 600 had been cashed and they provided us the numbers of each check stolen/cashed. Of the ones that were stopped, UDS 400, we could pick up as Thomas Cook Travellers Cheques from the Uhuru Branch of the Commercial Bank Of Tanzania.

We faxed Oamaru again to request photocopies of the cashed travellers cheques, then went to the bank to pick up the new cheques - not there! But took the time to go around the Bureau de Change place to see if they could enlighten us about the cheques already cashed. A waste of time & energy.

A few days later I rang London VISA to fax me details of where and when the cheques were cashed, and the woman told me that the forged signatures were nothing like the originals! It took a few days for the fax to arrive and Mo, who in another life had been a police inspector accompanied me to the National Bank of Commerce. The people there were very co-operative and told us that one of the cheques was banked by Mt Meru Hotel (Novotel). We then went to the Sanbik Bank and the accountant there knew the man who had banked $200 and he told us to return about 3:00pm and the man might be there. We went off the Mt Meru Hotel where the accountant was co-operative and said he would mount an investigation because they had cashed the $400 that we had stopped! In the end, nothing came of this line of enquiry - I guess whoever cashed it was close to the accountant because his point of view was they could not find who had actually cashed the cheques. he would know the roster and he would have known what went on.

Back at Sanbik Bank and the guy had not come in. But the accountant knew him well and phoned him - this wee accountant was excited about his role in the investigation and giggled as he placed his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. The guy owned Pelican Safaris and would see us next at 10:00.

This fellow was a big, friendly man and said he was sorry to learn that our cheques had been stolen! He offered to refund us but actually never did! His wife ran the Bureau de Change at the Impala Hotel and she had given him the cheques to bank into his account! So we went to the Impala Hotel and talked to his wife. She could not tell us who it was that brought the cheques in but told us of the taxi driver who brought him. He could be found at Hotel 77 Taxi Stand in Peugeot (I forget the plate number). I found the guy and he thought I was a passenger and used good English, but when I asked about the guy he took to Impala Hotel, he didn't remember his English - so I used Kiswahili. He said he would tell me once and even in court will never say again.'I don't know his name, but he is a young man, tall and black!' He described the eldest son of Big E! The black bit is not disparaging, because all Africans have brown eyes and black hair, among themselves, they tell each other apart in the first instance by the relative colour of their skin - simply some are darker than others.

I knew I could not accuse the fellow, but I had solved the mystery! Two days later though, I saw the man from Pelican Safaris drinking with Big E at his bar! The next morning I told him I had seen the man who had banked the stolen cheques. Of course Big E asked me where, and when I quietly told him - he turned just a tinge of white and squirmed!

It all fell into place. The thief and his friend stayed in our house while we were at the Agency Conference held at Ilboru Safari Lodge. They told us it was not secure to leave the house unattended! The young buggers had actually slept in our bed - they had not washed their feet and all was revealed on the bedsheets when we arrived home. They must have rummaged through our gear while they had the opportunity and (probably though not necessarily) took a copy of the key. Then when the opportunity arose, he entered and nicked the cheques!

Later I found this lad had made a girl pregnant - he was senior boy at a secondary school - and he needed money! The rear tyre of the Maruti was stolen too! By the same person for the same reason, the concrete block used to prop up the wheel had come from behind the house and I found the imprint of it. The worst thing about this was that the wheel nut were stolen too and they prover hard to replace - which is why they too were stolen!

Oh yes, VISA reconsidered and thought the signatures were in fact similar and refused to reimburse us, but of course we had copies and pointed out the error of their decision. In the end they paid out and added USD200 for the trouble we had been put to - so no complaint!