MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH A PHONE SNATCHER

From my last post, I promised to tell this story.

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After the whole experience from my previous post, I had to go down the memory lane of what that particular phone had been through before now, it’s a lot!

July 1st, 2022; I was returning back to school and I was on my way to the car park at Ibadan in Oyo state. I was to take about three vehicles from my house before I can get to the car park, where I would take a bus to Ogun state, Abeokuta, where my school is located. It all happened when I was in the second vehicle . To be exact, it was a keke napep (a tricycle), and it can contain 3 passengers at the back, and 1 in front, with the driver. I was sitting at the back, by the left.

I actually thought of the safety of my phone, and that was the main reason I held it instead of putting it in my overloaded back pack or in my pocket. To myself, that was the smartest option, because pick pockets are everywhere and with all the things I was carrying, I don’t think I would notice if anyone takes anything in my pocket, especially it was done by a professional, so I just decided to hold it instead.

Then something that has never happened to me before happened in less than a minute. I have heard stories, but never knew it would happen to me one day.I suddenly saw a hand stretch into the tricycle, reached for my phone and tried to snatch it. This guy is definitely faster than flash😂, no one can argue with me😂. Luckily for me, and fortunately, the phone slipped and dropped on the main road (on motion). In my head, I was like ’wait a minute, what just happened?!’

I couldn't say a single word, I was totally mute and thought it was all a dream or something unreal. Thank God everyone in the vehicle saw what just happened and the driver stopped at once. The thief vanished after his unsuccessful mission, he was able to get away so fast because he was on a bike so it was easy to disappear before he gets nabbed.

At this moment, I didnt even know how to react or feel, I was just dumbfounded. A good Samaritan helped in picking up my phone and bruhhh😭😭, I couldn't recognise my sleek baby again, my screen was black ... oh, not totally black, I was seeing like a million funny colours at once😂😭, the back of my phone literally shattered, I couldn't cry.

I was just looking, because I thought we were acting a movie or something. I thanked the person that picked my phone for me, and was hearing sorrys, different comments and criticisms around me. They had different opinions, and really, it was okay and totally normal, so I didn’t feel too bad. You know when something hasn’t happened to you before, you will think you are the smartest person on the surface of the earth.

‘Why didn’t you put it in your pocket’ , ‘maybe she was pressing it’ , ‘children of nowadays never want to part with their phones’ , ‘why didn’t you put it in your bag’ , bla bla bla. Well, maybe they have valid points, but I am sure of something; In this life, you can’t be too careful, anything can happen under any circumstance. So, I just entered the vehicle back in silence, together with the other passengers, as they kept discussing about the matter. I sat down, still processing all that just happened, and kept staring at my phone, it was perfectly okay about 5 minutes ago, and it looked like a totally different phone now, it’s crazy.

I had a really hard time before I could withdraw my transport fare, because I couldn’t use my mobile banking application and I also didn’t have my ATM card with me, I had to borrow a small phone to insert my sim in order to do the transaction. I had a rough journey, because I couldn’t listen to any music, that made me feel even worse,but I did not cry. At the end of the day, I got to school but couldn’t do most of the things I went for, because I didn’t have a phone. As usual, God didn’t leave me to deal with it alone, I was able to save up and with the help of some of my friends, I was able to fix the screen about 2 to 3 weeks after. I just decided to use a pouch instead of fixing the back as well, as that would invite an extra cost.

By the way, those few weeks without a phone was not even that boring, honestly. I got busy with reading, seeing different movies on my PC, and enjoying the ringtone from my small Nokia phone😂. It was quite an experience, I wouldn’t lie.

Thanks for reading🤍