Contemporary Love

At about 1:30 AM on the night of the fires someone rang our doorbell.

It was a local man. For the past week or so he had been harrassing Proverb's sister on an almost daily basis, showing up at her house, climbing her fence, and trying to talk or force his way into her house. The thirty-something-year-old man had been a friend of Proverb's sister years ago when they were in school. From what I've been told, he went on to become a very successful business man but lost everything, according to accepted rumor, because of a drug addiction.

He is now unemployed, destitute and has been abandoned by his family. Proverb's sister was gentle with him at first, but from his conversation and mannerisims felt he was mentally unstable and told him to stop coming to her house. He didn't.

When he rang our bell Proverb went to our second floor window and asked what he wanted. He said he wanted to talk. Out of concern for him, she went downstairs to our front gate and spoke to him over the iron doors that protect our driveway. I went with her.

The conversation started calmly. Proverb offered him a cigarette. But a few minutes later he became agitated, aggressive, and refused to leave when we told him there was nothing more to say. He then threatened me, saying the people of the village didn't like foreigners and that the local "Taliban" (his imagination) would kill me. He was carrying an alarm clock and some other small items and told Proverb that it was a bomb and if she didn't let him inside our gate he would set it to explode in thirty minutes.

That was enough. I yelled at him to leave. He retreated across the street but remained there staring at us. We quickly went back upstairs (we live on the second floor), locked our entrance door, went to the window, and again told him to leave.

At that point, he became violent and forced the driveway gate open. He walked up our stairs, breaking a glass window that belongs to the business that owns the space below us with his hand on the way. He stood outside of our door and screamed at us to open it. He began to kick the door and bang on it with his fists.

Proverb called the police.

While this was taking place, Proverb's sister, brother-in-law, father and a small group of neighbors arrived and yelled at him to stop. He wouldn't. Several minutes later the police arrived and took him away. While the door to our home is large and sturdy, the force of his attack had damaged the frame and he was only one or two kicks short of forcing it open.

I wish the story ended there.

An hour or so later the police returned, with him in the backseat of their car, and told Proverb that he was not going to be held and that they were taking him home. They said they would patrol the street from time to time during the night to make sure nothing more happened.

We both thought this was incredible. He had forced his way past our gate and made a serious, violent attempt to break down our door, and now the police were giving him a ride home.

Proverb and I spent the rest of the night at our window to see if he would return. At about 4 AM he did. I saw him standing outside our gate. He saw me, walked a few meters down the road, stopped, looked at me again, then left. Proverb called the police. They found him. And took him home again.

We saw him once more that night walking on the nearby main street but he didn't come to our house.

Yesterday afternoon, Proverb and I went to the local police station to press charges and find out why he had been released. The officer we spoke to told us that since he hadn't actually entered our house, the class of crime he had committed didn't require immediate incarceration. He also said, however, that if we had pressed charges immediately, then he might have been held in jail. Neither of the arresting officers had told us this.

We thought this too was incredible. Someone violently attempts a home invasion and the police give him a ride home. Proverb spoke to a friend of hers later yesterday who is familiar with criminal law and was told that what the local police had done and told us was not correct and that we could return to the police station and demand that he be arrested. That's on today's agenda.

We also were told by a neighbor that earlier yesterday the man had boasted in the local café that he intended to return again last night.

When we returned home from the police station Proverb, her brother, a friend of her brother, and I decided to go to the café to talk to him and see if there was some peaceful way we could resolve the situation.

We went. It didn't work. The meeting turned ugly but no one was hurt.

The frame and lock to our door was fixed yesterday afternoon. Proverb's brother, father and I spent last night waiting for him to return. He didn't. At about 2 AM Proverb's brother and I heard what we thought was a car crash. Word is today that the man broke a large plate glass window at the café.

We slept for a few hours this morning and will see what today brings.