ifound my iphone – in downtown Bulawayo

I was packing up after an art fair at Hillside Dams, Bulawayo last month, having had a fine day selling my Jacarandell carvings. Feeling hot and tired, I asked my daughter Abby if she could drive. I jumped in the passenger seat where I had left my bag. But my bag had gone. I knew I had left it there. Panic! I visualised what was in my big beautiful leather bag….. my iphone and ipad, my daughter’s iphone, my wallet with all my cards in it, I.D., driver’s licence and some recently earned US dollars from the fair. My diary! With my life in it….

Abby had a brilliant idea – to track her iphone from her friend Emile’s, using the “find my iphone” setting. Having entered her password, within a couple of minutes, it was easy to see on “maps” where her phone was (and therefore my bag with everything else in it.) Amazingly enough, it was already in the middle of Bulawayo on the corner of Fifth and Fort Street – a good fifteen minutes from where we were.

“Lets’ go!” The three of us jumped into the car, and rushed to the Hillside Police Station. I kept the engine running while I ran in. Three bored looking policewomen and one policeman sat inside on their scuffed and antiquated chairs, scanning their phones.

I greeted them breathlessly – “good afternoon…. please, please could one of you come with me! I’m chasing my stolen bag – I can see where it is on my friend’s phone!” It took a couple of agonizing minutes for them to register this crazy lady’s request.

“Would you like a gun?” asked the one policewoman, sitting back in her chair with feet up on the counter.

“Seriously?” I asked. She didn’t reply, but the policeman did –

“Ah, ok I will come with you – I’m Constable Nyare.”

“Great, excellent – let’s go!”

We roared off down Matopos Road towards town.

“Mr Policeman,” I said, fogetting his name – “the lights are red, but there’s no oncoming traffic. May I go through?”

“You may proceed with caution ” he replied.

We sped off towards the city centre. Emile and Abby could see clearly where the iphone was on “maps” and it had not moved since we had left the fair. Was the thief in a downtown restaurant, treating his friends to Chibuku and lunch? We parked on the corner of Fort and Fifth Street – a busy part of town close to the main vegetable market. We waited while the constable and Emile went off, eyes on the screen, tracking the lost bag. It was a nail-biting time waiting for them to come back. Every now and then I would walk to the corner, scanning the street for them. Everyone who passed me stared – what was this strange white lady doing patrolling the street on a Saturday afternoon?

“Cheers Mukiwa,” said a drunken, friendly man as he staggered past, Carling Black Label can in hand.

Meanwhile Emile and Constable Nyare knew they were right next to the bag. They were standing by a small white car and could see that they were almost on top of the pulse on maps. Emile set off the alarm on his phone. Suddenly the car sped off with no warning – they knew the bag was in that car!

They rushed back to us – but with a sinking heart I realised that I was now stuck in a fuel queue!

“Damn this fuel shortage!” I jumped out and slammed the door – ran around like a asking drivers if they could please move so we could get out. Abby and Emile laughed out loud at me pleading a Kombi to move when in fact there was no driver in it. Finally, the car in front of us moved and we could squeeze through.

On the phone, we could see that the bag was now moving at great speed towards the Victoria Falls Road. I somehow executed a hasty U-turn just before a busy intersection – cars were hooting, it was mayhem. We drove out of town… following the pulse.

“Yes yes that’s right, we’re on to it! Turn right here – keep going! OK – past that bridge – now turn right again – here!”

We were now at the Bulawayo Spruit bridge, turning right on to Colenbrander Avenue. A smelly, swampy part of town, overgrown with bullrushes and litter everywhere.

“Oh my gosh we’ve gone past it – stop!”

We had driven past the point which indicated the whereabouts of the bag.

“They must be hiding under the bridge!” I stopped the car and the two men got out. A minute later, Emile yelled triumpantly: “it’s here!”

“What!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Emile emerge from the bank by the bridge with my bag.

“The bag was on the ground, ipad and diary next to it – they must have known we were chasing them, and they threw it out the window!”

Hands shaking, I rummaged through my bag and saw that everything was there – except the money in my wallet and my phone – gone! Thankfully Abby’s phone was there.

“Let’s track your phone on my phone,” said Abby. Realising that my diary was now with us, I gratefully opened it and found my password, which Abby entered into her phone on the “find my iphone” app. The pulse was clear and it was very close. We drove slowly down the road, and round the block.

“It’s so close! I think we’ve gone past it now!”

We turned round and waited.

“No, it’s now ahead of us!”

It was very confusing, not knowing where it was exactly…. so near and yet so far!

“I think it’s in that house up the driveway” – let’s go in!

“But it’s moving….” perhaps it’s in that car coming past us!

“Stop!” said the Constable to the driver. “We are searching for a stolen phone. I am searching cars.”

Emile knew that the phone was very close. He set off the alarm for my iphone.

A shrill noise came from the floor of the passenger side of my car.

“Oh my gosh, sorry – it’s in my bag!” This time we had been chasing my phone which in fact was in my car. I had not seen it when searching through the bag. How embarrasing – but what a relief. The constable told the other driver that “it is ok – you may proceed.”

Great success! We had everything except the money. We even had the registration number of the vehicle. Now we had to go back to the police station to make our statements. (After buying Constable Nyare a coke and buns of course.)

We have not heard back from the police, having given lengthy statements. No justice has been done and my money has not been found. However, I have my ipad and we both have our iphones, my wallet with cards and my beautiful leather bag.

A word of advice – memorize your apple I.D! Make sure your “Find my iphone” setting is on.

What an adrenalin-pumping day. “That’s one of the most exciting afternoons I’ve had in a long time!” said my daughter.

Thanks must go to iphone technology!