CSI: Santiago

As promised, part 2 of the Santiago church robbery. (Be sure to read the first part by clicking here or by scrolling down if you haven't read it yet).

There seminarian Freddy and I are, looking at the broken locks, scanning the room to figure out what is missing. A thousand thoughts a minute. What to do? First things first. Freddy calls 911 to report the burglary.

Wonder of wonders! A police car actually shows up! --The Dominican police force is *not* known for its reliability.-- The officer looks the building over, then tells us we have to go to the station to file the report. He'll meet us there.

By now the other seminarians have arrived, so they can watch the building as Freddy and I go to the police station. Once we find the right office, Freddy and I wait about 20 minutes for the officer in charge to show up. We tell him about the robbery. He calls for the "scientific investigation" team to accompany us back to the church to investigate the scene, then he will write out the report. We wait 10 minutes for them to show up. The investigation team tells the officer who called them that he has to fill out the report first before they go. They argue for a few minutes about what comes first, the report or the investigation. We wait another 20 minutes as the officer takes out a grade school writing tablet (I think it had "Dora the Explorer" on the front) and writes out a rather general report by hand. There is a computer in the room, but it is being used as a big CD player... --The Dominican police force is not known for its efficiency.--

Finally the report is written and we can lead the CSI team to the church. The "scientific investigation" consists of digital photos and dusting the doors for fingerprints. Since this isn't TV, they don't find a case solving fingerprint on the first try--nor do they solve the case in 43 minutes (60 with commercials)--but they do find one they think is "promising". Freddy and I are both fingerprinted so that they can rule our fingerprints out. We'll see if they get a "hit" on the fingerprint they found, but I'm not holding my breath.

By the time the CSI team finishes and leaves, it is our normal break time, so the seminary students go for a quick snack before starting to clean up. Right next door to the church, behind the fruit stand where the guys get their snack, is a run down house that has been abandoned for almost half a year now. Julio says, "Let's look around to see if the thieves left anything there." Can you guess what happens next?

While I'm still in the church starting to put things away, I hear Freddy call out "Professor Natan! Natan! Venga!" (Prof Nathan. Come here!) The thieves DID leave something behind! There behind some stairs is our window air conditioner unit. They had obviously placed it there planning to come back for it later.

Again, we see the little blessings the Lord showed us. He allowed us to recover the most expensive of the six items that had been stolen! We were even able to joke about--now the thieves are going to call the police to complain that we stole back what they had rightfully stolen from us! :-)

It was a long day, but after cleaning the church, buying and installing a new lock for the door, a new (much stronger) padlock for the gate, making copies of the new keys for everyone, etc. I finally go home. The story, however, would continue the next day......