The DR Gringas Life

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Views From My Balcony - Grabber's Necklace Stealing Headache

A helmet wearing motorcycle rider
Heading the wrong way
Down a one way street
This day made a huge mistake
As he looked to pray
On an innocent victim
A sparkling necklace
Caught his treasure seeking eye
He made the grab
Forcefully removing a necklace
From the unsuspecting woman walking by
Much to his amazement
Someone gave him a shove
Down went Mr. Grabber
Onto the black rough pavement
The men in the street
Pounced
At least 10 to 1
Yells were coming from the mouths of all
The crowd had their way
Grabber had no hope of escape
A few minutes passed
Grabber was out of sight
As the mob of angry humans beat Grabber
The police arrived
It was their turn now
Grabber came into view
Looking much less smug
Then when he started his jewelry thieving quest
The necklace was returned
To the crying woman
The bloodied thief
Was taken
Sandwiched between the two police
On their motorcycle
Police-Grabber-Police
The police seated in the rear
Holding Grabbers black helmet
Very aggressively and with much force
Was using Grabber’s own helmet
Bashing him in the head
Pounding some sense into the thieves bleeding head
As they passed by
On the way to the police station
We, onlookers from the balcony above
Showed our support and approval
With a rousing applause
A thief was caught
Grabber was taught
That stealing is not good
And that it can be a real headache.

Labels: applause, grab, grabber, motorcycle, police, stealing, thief

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Stealing Electric

I wrote about living without electric before in this blog. But I came across this video and it brought back lots of memories.
I remember when I was just a tourist in DR. One of the first things I told friends when I returned home was about the electric lines and how people seem to steal the electric. I had no idea then just how bad it was in real life.
When I moved to DR I would watch the tourists take pictures of the electric lines. Isabel la Catolicá and El Conde in Colonial Zone was a favorite electric line picture taking spot.
I had to check my line every so often because there was one neighbor that connected into my electric. I found out he didn't do it on his own, the landlord told him to do it and to pay me for it. He never told me and of course, never paid me so I cut his electric.
Another neighbor, she had a bar. She stole the electric all the time. They would come and cut the line (give her a fine I'm sure) and the next day she had it connected again. If it was in the evening and she couldn't get the line connected in time she would call up to me and ask for an extension cord so at least she could have music in the bar. Then she just used candles for light. I couldn't do much in my apartment when she used my electric. My lights were really dim and I was afraid to try the computer so I would just go down to her place and hang out. I knew she wouldn't pay me for the electric so I just drank my pay. That was fine with me.
Now check out this video. This guy is on top of the pole. Sitting there working, using a machete it seems. There is no ladder so he must have shimmied up there. I am afraid to play with any electricity. When I had to hook op my outside light I made sure all the power was turned off. Checked it with a voltage thing, and I was still a bit shaky. This guy looks like hes ready to have a beer sent up or even happily spend the afternoon atop that pole.