The Robbery

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning. The weather is lovely and I'm still excited from celebrating my younger brother's birthday with him yesterday.

This morning, I remembered an encounter I once had with armed robbers at school. I had never been robbed before and I must confess a little part of me was excited, not necessarily in a good way but I could feel my heart beating really fast, and I couldn't stop telling myself "it's happening it's finally happening". It was the week after school exams, lots of students had gone home for the short holiday. I didn't go home it yet because I still had a few things to do in school. I had a roommate and she had gone to visit a family friend that day; she was to return the next day. Being alone gave me the opportunity to clean up the room as well as I wanted to as I could clean all parts of the room including where she kept her things. I also cleaned the outer part of our room, cleared out anything that didn't need to be there and I locked up the things we wouldn't use till we travelled. The way the rooms were set were like motels. There was a long corridor with doors to different rooms. These rooms were all occupied by students. My room was on the ground floor and there were other rooms on the first floor.

The building was not fenced and strangers could easily walk in. There was a small gate we locked at night but a determined toddler could possibly get past it.

At the night of the robbery, I was bored since my roommate was not around so I went upstairs to hang out with my lodge mates. We all stayed in a room and those who had stayed in the lodge (the building) for longer told us tales about the different students who had stayed there and their personalities. They also told us about the events that had been held in the lodge like the end of session celebrations etc. It was fun to listen to the stories. The major narrators exaggerated each events in ways that made us laugh. We kept asking questions and getting hilarious replies. The night was going well. The session was over and no one had lectures to attend, so we stayed up till a little past midnight.

I later went down to my room. Downstairs, the other students hadn't travelled for the holiday yet, we were all still around. I went to my room, admired how clean it was then I got ready to sleep. I locked my door and after some contemplations about whether to keep my light off or on, I turned it off.

At about 2 or 3 am, I heard footsteps and whispering. I might have ignored it or not even heard it considering that I was tired and only went to sleep a few hours earlier. I should have been deep in sleep but the nature of the sounds woke me up somehow. I still marvel at the fact that I was woken up by whispers. When I heard it, something felt off. I couldn't make out what they said and then I heard their footsteps, they were just outside, not far from my room. I grabbed my phone close to me but my phone had fallen in water earlier and was damaged, the screen was blank and unreadable, I could only take calls. I managed to reduce the volume to the minimum but I couldn't call anybody.

I crawled out of my bed and got in more appropriate clothes. I hid anything of value including mine and my roommates. I removed my charger which was showing a blue light, I brought out my old spoilt laptop so that if they came in, they would have something to take and hopefully leave me alone. I then took off the covers from my mattress and I stood in the small space between the window and door. It was the only blind spot if they looked through my window.

There was became louder and I could tell when they jumped through the small gate. I was worried as I thought I was the only girl around and I was alone. I later found out another girl came visiting in another room but she was with her boyfriend. The doors of each room was wooden and they started with breaking the first one. I don't know how they did it but I heard the bang on the door.

They went room by room till they got to mine, the second to last room. They had a very bright torchlight and with it one of them flashed into my room through the window and the torchlight illuminated the whole room. I was standing still beside the window, holding my breath and willing my heart to stop beating so heavily. I could smell the sweat from the theif who was just a feet away from me, although, outside. Another one tugged at my door and banged on it hard shouting "open the door". I didn't know if I should stay or blow my cover by opening the door. The one with the torch then moved away and said "I don't think anyone is here". Because I had cleaned up earlier, the front of my room looked vacant, like I had packed up and travelled. While they still pushed the door, they noticed my next-door neighbour peeping from his window and they went to that room. I heard he was hit with the but of a gun for peeping.

I got away from being robbed but I felt bad for my neighbours. I called my roommate to inform her the next morning and she said she would have yelled, cried and opened the door haha. The next day, we demanded for better protection of the building and in two days, construction work began.

Thanks for reading. Have you ever experienced any form of robbery?