Helping a robbery

When I was young, we stayed in a two room flat, walk up apartment with no lift, with my grandma, mum and sister. All the units shared a common corridor. There is only one door leading to each unit, that is through the kitchen. So our unit's kitchen faces the kitchen of the opposite unit. At the end of the common corridor at both end, is the stairs.

The unit opposite ours, lived an elderly lady in her late forties. She stays alone. She goes out to work at about ten in the morning and be back late at night. One day, a boy, around 19 or so, came and stayed with her. She told us that he is her son, from outstation and will be staying with her for a few days. During his stay, he was quite polite, would always smile and say hi when ever he sees one of us.

Few days after he moved out, he came back, one afternoon, on a week day, with few friends and look like they were snooping around the house. My sister and I were at school. The lady opposite was at work and so was my mum. He turn around and saw my grandma cooking in the kitchen. He came over to our house and told grandma that he had left something very important in the house and his mum could not rush home in time. He said he is going to break the pad lock and need to borrow a hammer. He also said that he had called his mum and she don't mind him breaking the lock.

In just seconds, he broke the lock and went in the house with a friend, while another friend kept watch at the gate. Within few minutes, he came out and even return the hammer and thank grandma for it. He left in a hurry.

Few hours later the lady came home and was shock that her house was broken into. She asked around if anyone had seen anything and grandma told her everything. It must be difficult to accept being robbed my her own son. I can't remember if she made a police report.

Same thing happened to my neighbor few years back. The elderly couple came home at night after work to find their room being ransacked. Made a police report. There was no sign of break in. After thorough investigation, found out that he was robbed by his own son.

Guess it must be devastating to be robbed by their own flesh and blood, that adorable little fellow whom they nurtured and cared for, that had suddenly turned into a monster overnight. Maybe there are signs that indicates that this might happen but like most parents, they could either be in denial or ignorant to acknowledged. Poor folks, hope this never happen to any one of us.

Thanks for reading. Really an eye opening tale for me.