Lost and Found

The world is full of horror and wonders! On Sunday 9/11 I had my laptops stolen. Both of them, business and private! And the external backup drives. Horror! I was devastated. As if someone had snatched my past life away. Don't want anyone to ever experience that. I walked around like an empty shell, a hollow something, executing activities and initiating actions, but feeling totally numb inside... When I detected the theft I called the police. Ehh? What's their number again? Don't have it. Doesn't matter.. they wouldn't come anyway ("...but sir, we don't have fuel for the vehicle... you come and pick us..."). Fine, so I drive to the police station and tell some officer what happened. Aha! First, we have to sit and write it down. After a lengthy protocol where all types of totally irrelevant data have been scribbled down into a crumpled book with a pen which is hardly working. Then, the officer tells me with a grave expression on his face: "So the theft has just taken place?" - "Yes!" - "So we shall investigate the place."

Wow! And in fact shortly afterwards I find myself in the car packed with police officers: The SOCO person (Site Of Crime Officer). The officer who wrote the protocol in the crumpled book, then a specialist we collected from the Nsambia Police Canine Unit, his assistant and a German Sheperd in the trunk! Off we go!

Reaching the site of crime the Site Of Crime Officer wiggles with his brush creating little clouds of silver finger print powder while the dog sniffs around for stray cats, bones and she-dogs on heat. Though I have to admit that their efforts were somehow sincere the outcome was of course nil. After driving everyone back home to their respective police stations I am advised that now I should talk to the IO (Investigations Officer) who will now investigate the case. Another police man (and his assistant / girl-friend / whatever) sits in my car, we drive back again. The scene is viewed with a critical eye and the notes scribbled by his predecessors are studied in length. Conclusion: A theft has taken place and the thieves cannot be identified. But: not all is lost! Because I get a reference card with which I can pick up my police report in a week or two. If I pay the 65,000 Ugandan Shilling in the police bank account and if I facilitate my IO with some little money so he can get the report typed etc. :-(


Slowly my numbness gives way to pain and my mind starts revolting; no, it can't be true, it can't be... all my data lost, lost...!? Monday morning I start talking to the first persons about it and while I listen to myself talking I somehow regain my spirits. Some also encourage me to look around on second hand markets, stories are being told where stolen laptops have surfaced somewhere again... So I quickly create a WANTED Poster "LOST: Dell XPS M1530, blue cover, German keyboard, pls call 077945xyz" with a pretty pic attached

And off I go, diving into the depth of Kampala's underworld. Starting on Kampala Road with all those shiny shops owned by Indians and only selling brand new laptops...

...I'm slowly drifting off into narrow, dark and smelly side-alleys, talking in a dodgy way to dubious people. I'm climbing up staircases to the 5th floor where all of a sudden half a dozen Ugandans stop talking as they see me entering... small shops on corners that look like they've just been put up there and that they'll disappear in the next minute again. As it is getting dark I'm ending up in one of those shops where you wonder how they make money because they just sell ragged cables and broken adapters. But on the counter I spot a laptop I know inside out: this is my work laptop! For the last 2 years I've been staring at it every day for several hours, I know every corner, every scratch, every mark on it. With a trembling voice I ask if I can have a look at it, but somehow I must have appeared too interested. Someone from behind me closes it with a bang, snatches it and disappears with it in the labyrinthine alleys and stairs. Ahhhrgh!!!

But I remain calm as if it didn't bother me at all.. If they maybe had another Dell? For example an XPS, because those Dell XPS are really cool machines...? The guy behind the counter reaches somewhere behind him into a safe and pulls out the corner of a laptop but someone else shouts something in Luganda and he puts it back again quickly. But I know my laptop. That's my laptop. I try to remain calm while sweat is running down my back and front. I keep chatting in a very casual way. A lot of evasive statements, no clear answers, people come and leave and many eyes rest on me. They know that I am looking for my stolen goods... Am I trustworthy? Or is there a police unit around the corner. I guess they're scouting the surroundings to find out. Finally, I seem to have talked my way up to the manager. He tells me that they actually don't know where they get their laptops from... they just buy and sell... people just bring their laptops and they claim they are theirs... so they don't know where the laptops come from. I tell them a story about me forgetting my laptops somewhere and I was hoping that maybe someone has found them and brought them here for sale...? After another half hour of chatting and probing, they finally produce my sweet blue laptop: "Is it maybe this one? But you know, we had to buy it from the person who brought it here... So you'll have to pay for it." I happily do so and even for my business laptop which is brought back into the shop another half hour later. I'm booting both of them and while they already have a new Windows installed, almost all data is still on them.

I'm walking out of the shop with both of my laptops under my arm, I feel like I'm walking on air... Can't believe what has happened. It's like a nightmare and I'm slowly waking up. Someone rushes up behind me and hands me the bosses business card, just in case I need anything else - I can't help but to laugh out loud.