The break-in

An organized group of thieves recently started breaking into occupied homes in a neighborhood of Port Vila called "Fresh Wota". They steal valuables while the household sleeps, unaware of their presence. It is rumored that they smoke marijuana until fearless, use kastom magic that makes the household residents sleep deeply and then cut window screens and remove glass louvres to enter homes and search for money and other goods. Buses and trucks help them transport stolen goods in the night.

On Wednesday, a 23 year old man who caught the group stealing in his home was stabbed to death with a machete when he confronted the thieves.

I slept on the outskirts of Fresh Wota on Friday night, with a relative of my host mother from the village. I assumed the house would be safe because it is occupied by a professional boxer who has represented Vanuatu fighting in Korea and the Philippines. Discussing the recent crime wave during the day time with him, he informed me that luckily, there had never been any theft in his yard over the past years.

That night I came back from a work function at midnight and went to sleep. The doors of the house were locked upon my arrival. At 3 AM, I was startled from my sleep by a woman's screams. Sleeping deeply, I was very confused. It took around 30 seconds for me to stir as I lay in bed listening, wondering whether the couple I was staying with were having a domestic fight or perhaps if some news had come that a relative had passed away. Alarmed, I arose and opened my bedroom door.

The woman of the house was screaming frantically. She had slept out in the main sitting room, as she and her daughter had been watching television until my late night return and then decided to sleep where they were. She pointed to the window, where the screen had been cut open and the window louvres had been removed. The boxer also had slept deeply and arose from his bedroom at around the same time.

She told us both that she had been awoken by someone using a small flashlight inside of the sitting room. She assumed that it was me, trying to find my way to the bathroom, even though this person was wearing a camouflage jacket, long pants and a hat. She was still half asleep herself and not thinking clearly. The man searched around the room and then opened the bedroom door where her husband, the professional boxer, was sleeping inside. The woman thought that maybe I was drunk and had gone to the wrong bedroom by mistake. When she noticed the intruder go behind the door where a hunting rifle was located, she then knew for certain that the man was a thief and not myself. She began to scream.

The man calmly carried the rifle, stepped over the screaming woman and walked out the back door. He then escaped into the early morning darkness. We called the police at 3:30 AM and they arrived around 9 AM to file a small report. Pretty hair-raising experience for us all considering how a similar incident had resulted in someone's death two days earlier. I am thankful that no one in the house was harmed and also that the thief chose to enter the adjacent bedroom and not my own, where my backpack containing a laptop computer and my wallet were located!

Anyhow, even though Vanuatu is relatively safer than most countries, including the USA, it has its own problems as well.