I’m shopping somewhere in a neighborhood in Beirut. When I
get back to where I parked my car, I am blocked from the back, ie. someone has
parked his car right behind mine. This is a rather common occurrence in this
town.
The procedure then is to walk around the other car, look around if the
owner is around somewhere, and if not, you open the car, and honk its horn a
couple of times.
Just like mommy seals, who recognize the call of their young
out of a thousand yelping little baby seals, it seems people do recognize the
horn of their own car out of many.
And so I walk around the car twice, look around, sigh annoyed, and then proceed to open the car door, which is - of course - unlocked, because I can see those little door knob things popped up high.
But
just as I am about to open the door, I see, between the two front seats, a
huge wad of paper money. Like a bit fat stack of thousands.
For those not
familiar with Lebanese money, a thousand pound is the equivalent of 50 euro
cents, or about 66 dollar cents. The only people carrying 1,000 bank notes in
stacks are cab drivers, so I go back to the front to see if this is a cab (cabs
have red license plates).
No, it’s a regular, albeit rather shabby Peugeot,
it has seen its best years.
But there it is; an unlocked car, and a huge stack
of money in the front. What idiot would leave his money out there in the open?
There’s no way on Earth I am going to open that car, I am
thinking. They’ re going to think I’m about to steal his money. But what
infinite idiot would leave all that money, right in the open, in an unlocked
car? And so I wait some more for the
owner to appear.
I don’t have to wait long. A rather heavy set man comes to
the rescue; it is his car, and he proceeds to get in.
“Do you know your car is
unlocked and you have all that money in the front? You think that is a very
wise decision?” I ask him.
“Don’t worry, it has a camera.”
Yeah, right. A camera. The car is from 1600 BC if you ask
me. The upholstery is in stitches, it’s got 3 different colors, and the doors
are not locked because I am guessing they cannot lock anymore. That kind of
car. And you have a camera?
“Yeah, right, you have a camera,” is my reply.
“Don’t worry, nobody will take the money,” he says to me,
and gestures me to come look at the front window shield. It’s got a black beret
on the dashboard with a silver cedar tree on it. That’s the sign of internal security. It’s not
army, and it’s not police, but something in between.
Really, now. You think a thief will survey your dashboard
before he helps himself to an easy catch? But there it was. The guy must have had
over $60 there, right up for grabs, in clear daylight, in an unlocked car, in
an incredibly busy neighborhood, and nobody touches it.
Weird.
3 comments:
i just love your posts!
and btw when you said shabby Peugeot, that was my clue that this is some government car!
I don't think cameras mean much!!
My mom got her handbag picked from her car while she was driving right in front of our building. Les parents took camera footage to the police who duly asked them to get his name so that they could arrest him. True story...
I don't think cameras mean much!!
My mom got her handbag picked from her car while she was driving right in front of our building. Les parents took camera footage to the police who duly asked them to get his name so that they could arrest him. True story...
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