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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 01/06/2011 : 02:24:55
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Late one afternoon a couple of weeks before Christmas, I had stepped out into my gated courtyard to open the valve that lets City water into my water tanks. (I try to top off my storage each day, just in case the City water supply fails.) Nothing happened. At first, I thought the valve had failed again in the closed position. I was about to text my landlady when it occurred to me to go out and check the valve up at the street corner at a collection of five or six water meters. Sometimes little kids will shut off the water there, as a kind of slightly annoying, microhumor prank.
My eye caught a fruit bat flapping by, looking like an only slightly diminutive Nosferatu.
When I climbed the street to the water meters, I found that they were, except for a single meter, gone. "Sonny," ironically owner of the little bottled water purification plant to the wall of which the water meters had been attached, told me the meters had been stolen the previous night. At about 2 AM, Sonny had heard his dog barking, but, since most dogs here bark continuously anyway, had ignored it. In the morning, the meters (except one) were gone. The meters were of brass, valuable enough simply as scrap to encourage theft. Sonny told me I'd have to make out a police report if I wanted the water company to replace the meter.
So the next day I trudged up the hill on Kennon Road to make my police report at Camp 7's Philippine National Police station. As I walked into the lobby, I saw cameramen, police officers, reporters -- and three very nervous looking young men in their late teens, well-groomed and decently dressed. This last trio was sitting, chained together and holding up signs with their names, upon a wooden bench. Before the three was a table upon which was piled a bunch of water meters. I felt a big grin spreading across my face.
I reported my complaint to a duty sergeant and signed a form. "My" meter was quickly IDed by serial number as one of those on the table. I asked one officer for info on the bust. He told me that the men were apprehended in the act of stealing yet more meters just the previous night. The station commander had assisted in the arrest. One additional gang member had evaded arrest.
I inconsiderately made a couple of quips within the hearing of the accused about missing out on the joys of Christmas, and about exchanging brass for iron.
A local TV Patrol reporter interviewed me, asking what, as an American, this crime made me think of the Philippines. Now, I may look it, but I wasn't born yesterday. I know that alongside and often coexisting with the deference Filipinos give Yanks is a streak of fierce post-imperial nationalism. (I recently saw a spray-painted message on a downtown traffic berm, "All Yanks are scum!") So I answered, "Well, we get these kind of thefts, often of copper wiring, in the States, too. What stands out as unique in my experience is having walked into a police station to make a complaint, to find the suspects already handcuffed together in custody. I didn't see THAT in the U.S." They ran that little interview on the local news that night.
Then I had to go to the offices of the Baguio Water District. The District has two mottoes: "On Firm Grounds, Moving Forward" (which makes me think of the reinforced concrete houses here which slid down hillsides when the ground slipped due to mudslides), and "Nurturing the Gains of the past 35 years" (perhaps a reference to the practice of bribing water officials to "fix" water bills). There the clerk informed me that I would have to reimburse the water company for the cost of replacing the meter. Even though mine was already recovered, it would now be "evidence." No, I could not have it back when the court case was over, as it belongs to the water company.
Even when it's swift, there ain't no justice in this whole world.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/06/2011 18:02:12
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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1486 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2011 : 15:18:58 [Permalink]
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A "d'oh!", a "cool" and then a "d'oh!" again.
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| Edited by - ThorGoLucky on 01/06/2011 15:19:54 |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2011 : 15:28:29 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by ThorGoLucky
A "d'oh!", a "cool" and then a "d'oh!" again.
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I agree. Mooner's response was so reasonable that I doubt that it would have made it on the local news in the states. Reasonable just isn't very entertaining. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2011 : 18:06:16 [Permalink]
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| Thanks, guys. Actually (now well after the fact), I think of the whole experience as a net "plus." Part of the fun of living in the Philippines. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Burgled in Baguio
