FRED Gentle was a thief. He stole anything once given the opportunity to. It was because of him that everyone in the rural village of Rocky Cove began locking windows and doors. But even locked houses posed little problems for him. Fred could open a padlock with a hairpin. He could scale (skim up) the side of a house to reach windows on the second floor.

Everyone referred to him as the ‘Thief-man’ because no one knew who the thief was. He was so skillful that he could clean out a house of prized possessions while the occupants slept.

Then his luck ran out. One night he entered Ramsingh’s home without realising that there was a dog living inside. He was bitten in many places and beaten badly by irate residents.
After that, he received many beatings and was chased away from any place he tried to gain employment. Even when he was not the perpetrator, the village still blamed him. Fred got a regular thrashing.

He soon realised that things were becoming dangerous and one of these days, they might beat him to death. He stopped stealing from his home village. Fred decided to spread his wings. The neighbouring villages became his target. He was merciless and raided many homes and small businesses. The small villages of Greenfield and Parkway didn’t know what hit them. People made reports to the police and the officers made their investigations but to no avail. Things were going smoothly when Fred encountered a crisis.

After benefitting from the many hits on folks in Greenfield he made the decision to raid old Mr Daniel’s Grocery Store. Now, Daniels was rich. He had two cars, lots of jewellery and loads of expensive electronic devices. Fred had avoided breaking into his place because the talk in the village was that he was a dangerous man. The first time the thief-man saw Daniels, he nearly died laughing. There was no way this man could be considered a threat to him. The man was short, old and walked with a pronounced limp. He decided to move on Daniels the next night.

The next night he left home dressed in black. That was his working colour. He rode to Greenfield, parked his cycle and walked the short distance to Daniels’ shop. With little difficulty, he breached the locks on the door and stealthily entered the premises.
Fred moved with skill, purpose and stealth. He gathered up all the plunder he could carry and headed for his place of entry. That was when his dilemma began.
As soon as he approached the door, terror fell on him. He received a merciless beating like none he had ever gotten before. Fred felt as though he was being hit on every muscle, bone and sinew.

In desperation, he struck out at his unseen attacker. This only provoked the situation even more. The beating increased and it was only when he dropped the booty that the beating stopped. When he realised this, he hastily abandoned all the loot and ran for his life. His troubles did not end there. His silent assailant followed him to ensure that he kept going. The pain was too much to endure so Fred took a desperate and unusual step. He ran to the police station to seek refuge.
It was just after 01:00hrs when he arrived. The gate was locked but that was no problem for Fred. He opened the old padlock and ran into the dark station.
“Help! Oh Gawd! Help!”

Sergeant Smartt was in the middle of a dream. He was surrounded by a group of beautiful women who were all fighting to get his attention. This was his heaven. Here he wanted to stay forever. Then his wonderful dream world crumbled and was replaced by a shrieking maniac. The officer jumped from the cot and struck his foot painfully against the wall
“Ow!” he bellowed in pain and fury.
He charged towards the front desk and saw a trembling, bleeding Fred. All the cops knew him. He had been arrested several times but had to be released due to lack of evidence.
“Wat de hell happen to you/”

“Jumbie beat me bad!”
“What!”
Jumbie was a red-letter word for the angry sergeant.
His experience taught him that some matters the police should never get involved in. This was at the top of the list. He looked the criminal over carefully and trembled at what he saw.
“Why de hell you come to dis station?” he yelled.
Fred’s desperation knew no bounds.

“Ah break into a house and Jumbie attack me. It beat me from there to dis station.”
When the policeman heard this his large tummy quivered in dread.
“Constable Johnson and Marks!”
“Y-Yes Sir!”
Both men stumbled out of their beds and went to the angry officer who was by now emitting steamy froth from the corners of his mouth with his eyes spitting venom. This gave him the look of an irate rhinoceros.

“Get dis crass out of me station and mek sure he don’t come back!”
“But sergeant you ga fo lock me up! Ah jus break into a house!” pleaded the thief.
“Out!”
The two junior ranks dragged the protesting man from the station and threw him out on his bum. By the time he hit the pavement, his saga continued.
Crack!
Pow!

Ply!
Blam!
With screams of pain, the man headed off for parts unknown.
With shrieks of terror, the two horrified cops headed for the safety of the station. This time they locked the door and the windows too. By the time they got back to their room, the Sergeant was snoring loudly.