AND GOD “PAID ME BACK IN MY OWN COIN”

So last Thursday, December 18, 2014, I bumped into someone’s lost phone (A Sony Experia something something) right in the main Oxford street near the Photo Club junction, Osu.

The type of phone I found

Coming from work, I alighted at the Shell bus stop and was walking toward Papaye when I saw the phone flat on the ground. I checked to see if I could dial any of the numbers on it to trace the owner but there was a complex lock on it.

Just across the gutter was this woman selling indomie so I drew closer and told her about the found phone. Judging from the position of the phone, it was obvious the owner came to transact some business with this indomie seller or, at least came from her direction. I left my number with her (for me) to be contacted in the event the owner came back looking for the phone.

In less than 4 minutes- even before I got home around the Beijing Clinic area, my phone rang and guess what, it was this young lady (with a shaking voice) who identified herself as the owner of the lost phone.

I directed her to my location and she came accompanied by four guys whose mission (for accompanying her, I can’t really tell). I met them at our gate and took her through some small drill to be sure she really owned the phone. She gave me her number, I dialed it and the phone rang then I gave it back to her and I had my “God Bless You” in return.

Some young guys in my area who heard the story branded me “JOHN” or better still, thought me a VILLAGE KROBO BOY because in their estimation, I should have been smarter, swerved and switched off the phone because this was a powerful phone that was sure to be expensive. I ignored them little did I know this act was going to be reciprocated; God was going to show me something small by “paying me back in my own coin”.

I was billed to best man one of my childhood friends, Samuel Asare Larnor on Saturday December 20, 2014 so I drove to Odumase-Krobo on Friday, or maybe I should say, I picked trotro since I didn't actually drive as the word suggests.

The next morning, I found myself in Asesewa, wrapped in some black suit against a white shirt and a mouve tie, marching behind my friend (the groom) like his personal guard. To cut long story short, he managed to kiss his bride before the congregation so the pastor certified their union and dispatched them to go and start “marrying”.

Guess what, I was carried away by the excitement that came with the event and in the process, I lost all two of my phones and a portable digital VIDEO CAMERA. After the ceremony, we were chauffeured home from the event grounds but my friend realised on arrival that he had left his key with one of his brothers who was still hanging around the chapel so we had to hang around the car and wait for the key. That was when I negligently parted company with my phones/camera.

The first of my lost (but found) Nokia phones

The plenty water I have been taking throughout the event signaled me that it was done with its job in my system and needed to be shown the exist so I immediately took a sharp turn behind the building and did what needed to be done, leaving my two phones and the digital camera on the BOOT of the car (not inside) without really prompting my friend or the wife/maid of honour to keep watch over them in my absence.  

I returned after a few minutes only to realize that the car was gone with all of my phones/camera. The painful thing was that neither my friend nor the driver knew the gadgets were on the boot. Come and see speed; I quickly activated my athletic make-up, (ask those who attended Odumase Presby JSS and they will tell you of my athletic records then days) and followed this driver with thunder speed but, jack, the guy was long gone leaving me with no option but to trace him with the marks left behind by the car tyres.

Don’t forget that I had no phones to call him too at this point. About 100 meters behind the Asesewa Senior High School wall, there one of my phones (the Nokia) was, lying in the middle of what should be a busy road (but God stopped people from passing). I picked it without delay, cut a cross on my forehead and continued.

The second of my lost Samsung phones

A few steps away, there the second phone was also (the Samsung), flat on the ground. Spontaneously, I cut another cross and proceeded in faith to rescue the last one- the video camera- and the most expensive of the lost items. At this point, the groom joined me in the rescue mission, leaving behind the fresh bride.

A two hour search came to naught and so we resigned to fate only to hear from this community/local information center near the Asesewa lorry park an announcement to the effect that one Francis (a Good Samaritan) has found a video camera and has deposited it at the center for collection.

We rushed there, went through the needed identification process and got back my video camera without paying a pesewa.

The type of video camera in question

In essence I had all my lost devices- a Nokia phone, another Samsung phone and a Sony video camera- in a way that defies logic; it must be the work of God meant to pay me back in my own coins for also giving back to the owner that Sony Experia phone I found on Thursday. The lesson? Do unto others as you want to be done by.