O, what chutzpah — this tale of Deji Ayoola, a pick-pocket reportedly picked up, in Lagos, by men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).
Add other synonyms — effrontery, impudence, arrogant courage and supreme self-confidence — and the Lagos RRS would perhaps swear you have not even half-captured Ayoola’s audacity of stealing!
As the story went, RRS nabbed Ayoola at the ever busy Berger bus stop, after allegedly just lifting — and neatly too — Ayodele Akerele’s wallet, with N14, 500 inside. Poor Akerele, in transit to Redemption Camp, suspected nothing.
His tale: “I collected N14, 500 from the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at Berger, on my way to the Redemption Camp. I had no idea my money had been removed. When it was time to pay my fare, I discovered my wallet had disappeared.”
”I had even forgotten about the money,” he continued, “until the following day, when an operative from RRS called me that my wallet was recovered from a suspect when they nabbed him.”
The RRS confirmed the story that it nabbed Ayoola, shortly after he had lifted Akerele’s pocket.
But Ayoola’s thieving genius — how audacious — would come across, in the virtual lion’s den. From the report, N1, 200 had dropped from the investigating policewoman’s pocket, over which Ayoola stealthily planted his foot. Thereafter, even with the host of police personnel swarming the place, he coolly pocketed the money!
But for a fellow detainee that snitched on him, the policewoman would have been none the wiser, in her own law-and-order “den”, just as Akerele was, in Ayoola’s thieving jungle!
Talk of the real Mac Coy!
But the real cheek of it? Satan — or more commonly, the devil — is the principal reason for Ayoola’s evil genius!
Hear him: “It was the devil who pushed me into the act. I pray to God to forgive me.”
Can you beat that? Of course, God must be long-suffering to tolerate this ready but vexing religious cant: and which one does He forgive — the pocket-picking at Berger, or its encore at the RRS office? Or both!
And Satan? Poor him — that one cannot defend himself!
But beyond this brazen thievery, there are strong positives to be taken. For starters, the best testimony for the police, perhaps in months, has tumbled from Ayoola’s victim, Akerele’s mouth.
Again, hear him: “The policeman added that they found my mobile number inside my wallet, which made it easy for them to call me. I was shocked to hear this because I had already lost hope of recovering the money.”
That is one up for the police. Is this the same set of cops whose rather dirty image suggests they would have done an “Ayoola” on Akerele’s money, instead of tracing the victim through his mobile phone number, found in his wallet? Kudos!
But Ayoola? Hardball just ponders: would he not have been better off, had he applied his smartness to positive endeavours, instead of lifting people’s wallets?