We have managed to get pretty far away from home and have occasionally found ourselves in strange circumstances with shady characters but we haven’t had any issues with crime…until today.
After five consecutive days of 6am (or earlier) wake up calls for game drives and travel the 5 Adventurers slept in. We ate breakfast at 9 and started school at 10. It has been several weeks since the kids had tablet school. Their time in Bangkok visiting museums and temples, followed by an African safari was all justified as “field school” and everyone enjoyed getting away from the computer-based curriculum.
However, it is tough teaching some of the required subjects in the field (looking at you Math!) and so we opened the Chrome books today and will continue to do so for the weekdays while here in Diani Beach.
During second period today while all 5 of us were working at the dining table Brian heard some activity coming from the floor above. Curious but also aware of the potential source he quietly climbed the stairs to investigate.
Standing in front of the boys’ bedroom was a sentry who looked something like this shady character.
In fact, this photo (taken later) might be of the ringleader but there are so many Sykes monkeys hanging around we’ll have to put ‘em in a line up to be sure.
At any rate, the lookout saw Brian coming up the stairs and signaled to his 2 accomplices already in the bedroom to high “tail” it out of there. The following exhibit was prepared by the Crime Scene Investigators.
These thieves were fast but Brian could tell they had loot of some kind so he did his best to chase after them. Sadly Brian’s tree climbing days are over so he could only watch in frustration as they escaped.
After securing the bedroom door and before returning downstairs to tell his story to the others he heard a dull thump. He peered over the balcony railing and could see the dropped loot.
He looked up and made eye contact with one of the thieves still in the tree. The monkey seemed dismayed at having blown his chance for a clean getaway and made moves down the tree to retrieve his treasure.
Brian realized that it was now a foot race between man and monkey. Sadly, Brian’s running down steep stairs days are also behind him so he called down to Tiffany to grab the unknown item before the monkey could get it.
It turns out that the pilfered item was an ebony lion figurine which we bought at one of our road-side souvenir stands this past weekend. It’s actually a bit heavy so not a surprise it got dropped. We think the thieves thought it was something to eat. Or resell – we’re not sure.
The host of our Diani Beach rental had told us that there was a dog that lived there. Sadly, Skipper’s burglar-chasing days are behind her so she was asleep throughout this caper.
5 Adventures Together 