I have personally experienced the act of mobile phone snatching (jog phone) at least on two instances during the ongoing festivities. Unlike others, i have been fortunate to thwart both attempts aimed at snatching (jog) my brand new 'Trinity' three sim phone, which was given to me as a gift by my mother.
It is therefore an open secret that the streets of Freetown are presently not only jam-packed with peaceful celebrants but also with a large percentage of miscreants. These criminals mix themselves up with crowds of celebrants with the sole ulterior motive to forcefully and criminally convert people's properties to theirs.
The first attempt on my phone took place in the evening hours of Sunday 24th April 2011 at about 11:00pm along Freetown Road in Lumley. I was driving home after a visit to my family in the east end of Freetown with my phone placed close to the vehicle's gear. Alone in my boss's Benz 190 which i was using in the thick of vehicular traffic, i spotted the flash of light on my phone. Curiosity forced my eyes out and i noticed that a guy that was standing by the car had flashed the torch to see whether or not there was anything inside the car he could lay hands on. I wasted no time to change the location of my phone from the gear basement to my pocket. Shortly afterwards, i overheard the guy dressed in red telling a supposed partner in crime who was standing by the road that he spotted the phone in my car.
Both of them later crossed to the other side of the road when they noticed that i was trickily monitoring their movement. It was during this period that another criminal dressed in black flashed his torch inside my car with the same motive to see if anything was left careless. At this point, i lost my cool and verbally lashed at the torch pointer.
shortly after that, then came the two criminals who have been monitoring my movement since. One of them hit the back of the car on the left side and shouted in the Krio local parlance: "Bra bra bra, u don mass me foot", meaning: "Senior, senior senior, you have stepped on my foot".
This experienced journalist who was well au fait with what the guys were up to pretended to look outside and allow their plot to continue, at least a bit more. The other one deep his head and hands inside of the other door to grab the phone which they thought was still on the gear basement. Instead of reaching the phone, he was blessed with a severe punch from me. The rest was history.
Again on Monday at about 8pm along Kissy Road. I was also driving my wife, a friend from Canada, his wife, and my wife's nephews, when another attempt was made at my phone.
I asked by friend's wife, who was seated at the front seat to check my phone and see who was calling. It was at this moment that three miscreants from the crowd of a mask devil rushed at the lady in a desperate attempt to snatch the phone. Our alertness was able to thwart that attempt also.
I have therefore decided to take time off the celebrations and sound this alarm bell here that not all those that are dancing behind masks devils are peaceful celebrants. A good number of them are mixing themselves with the celebrates to perpetrate criminality. Am alerting my readers to learn from my experience and keep their phones.
Beware! They are everywhere.
By Abdul Fonti
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