Stolen I Phone

Well it has almost been a month since our arrival in Ghana. A quick update before my story. Kids are in school and we are all adjusting well to the changes. It is the rainy season so the weather is actually mind and nice around 80 degrees. This is my first blog posting for you all. I hope to write at least weekly on new experiences. So my first story is about my stolen Iphone 5.

Before coming to Ghana, Solomon informed me not to leave phone or money etc by our windows as someone could easily push screen back and reach in room to get wanted item. We do have glass windows and burglar proof, however screen can be slid back. The week after Solomon returned home his family, the kids and I were preparing dinner and then ate in back of house near kitchen area. During this process, I remember setting my orange cased Iphone on the head of the bed semi under book that I am reading “Gone Girl.” I consciously thought the phone will be ok under the book here this far from window. Well not! Sometime with in less than an hour I went to find phone and is was gone. So my sister called the number and someone answered it and then hung up. Two amazing things, my husband recently made me put a passcode on my phone and also enacted “find my phone” before leaving for Ghana. As the evening progressed my sister call the number back and the thief answered and said he needed something off of this phone and that he wanted us to give him the passcode. Obviously we did not. Over the next few days Solomon was able to track my phone using find my phone to a near by home in Ayikuma, where we live. Just down the path off the main road and under the big identifying lone tree. For days the phone was turned off so we could no longer track it. We were trying to figure out a strategy to get the phone back, should we pay them money for it, go to the house and try and retrieve it. If we went alone to house, unfortunately, it would just be a bad situation.

Relying on the Ghana police is not something that is used. Police are easily bribed to get out of trouble or often stop at check points and try and get a few cedi's (local money) from you. Well I still decided to try the police station in Dodowa, our near by town. It is a small building off the side road painted blue on the bottom and tanish/yellow on the top, as most are painted. My sister and I went into the station to make a report and have an officer go to the house with us to retrieve the phone. The office at the counter took the information down for a report and told us to wait. We waited and waited, very common theme here. Finally we met with the “investigator” women I a back room and I wrote my statement. I was insisting that I can track the phone using the other Iphone that I had in my hand. I could find the exact location of the phone on a map. She was not too thrilled or believing this. I showed her a picture of the map and location that Solomon found days earlier. Unfortunately, the phone had been switched off for days and even this morning that we were making the report, so we did not know if phone was in same house. Finally, the investigator woman said she would find us a police man to discuss case with-go and wait. We waited under the big tree out side the police station. My sister tried to call the lost Iphone and it went through... that meant the phone was switched on. Woohoo. I rushed to pull the tracking system on my phone to locate the current location. It came up and the phone had moved into the Accra area, the large capital of Ghana. It's about 45 min away with no traffic. I was so excited, I rushed in to show the investigator the new actual location of the phone.

The next thing I know, I have two police men in the back of my little blue Hyundai driving to Accra to find my phone. One was a very young police 'boy' dressed in blue police attire (minus the thong sandals). The other was a detective dressed in street clothes. So I drove into the city, not yet confident in my new Ghanaian driving skills... A longer story short. Police were unable to accurately find location using the map. I took the phone, used the map counting the paved roads that we passed to match with map and made it to our HOUSE. We parked outside, my phone was inside the concrete fenced yard. There were many young men lingering around the gate. So the police enter the complex, my sister and I in the car. After a couple of minutes, I told my sister to go inside gate and call my phone so she could here it ring the drum sounds. She entered the gate and a minute later ran into the street arms raised, jumping shouting we got it, we got the phone! I then entered the compound and police had my phone still in orange case in his and luckily. Luckily because after minute of talking to the young man who has the phone he darted to the back of the house. The police jumped over the porch railing and chased, but did not catch the boy. I think due to the thong sandals the dam police man was wearing!

After interrogation we left the house with the phone. We continued back to Ayikuma to make a presence in our neighborhood that we have the police involved. Word will spread the we were able to get phone back. I gave police some money for there help. Then back to police station , I thought in and out. But no.... They said, this was an investigation and we need to see the phone. You have to talk to women and tell what happened. Then wait to talk to the head police officer at the station. I graciously thanked them for their willingness to help me find my phone. No one had heard of the cell phone tracking system and were amazed how it worked.