Most times, when you look deeper, you discover that people who appear cautious or unfriendly are often reacting to painful experiences from their past.
This is a true story currently under investigation, so it may not contain every single detail of the actual event, also names were changed for privacy.
Mr. Jeff is one of those respected senior citizens in my neighbourhood. Humble, friendly, retired, and always willing to support the community whenever the need arises.
His two sons are grown and have both relocated abroad for work. In fact, his sick wife is abroad with one of them receiving medical attention.
One of his sons was building six duplex apartments, and Mr. Jeff was supervising the project.
There was a woman in the neighbourhood who did menial jobs; washing clothes, braiding hair, cleaning houses, and other small jobs. She usually travelled from far away and often returned home late, which was becoming unsafe.
Out of kindness, Mr. Jeff decided to help her. He took her to the construction site, opened one of the apartments for her to stay in, and asked her to monitor the project whenever he wasn’t around. They also agreed that she would receive a small stipend for the responsibility.
At this stage, the main structure was already completed. The remaining work was mostly internal: plumbing, tiling, wiring, POP, and finishing.
One month passed. Then two. Then six.
As the project neared completion, Mr. Jeff informed her that she should start making arrangements to leave because painting and landscaping: the final stages were almost done.
A few days before she was supposed to move out, Mr. Jeff visited the site.
When he got to the gate, he noticed something strange.
It was only bolted, not locked.
This was unusual because he had employed a security guard to protect the compound since construction began.
He entered, called out for the security guard, but there was no response. He tried calling the woman’s phone; it was unreachable.
Concerned, he entered the apartment where she stayed.
What he saw broke him.
The sitting room had been stripped bare.
The wiring, light fittings, chandaliers....gone!
The WC's in all the bathrooms.....gone!
The other five duplexes......same story!
Even extra bags of cement, cartons of tiles, metal rods, and buckets of paints stored in the compound were not spared .
At first, Mr. Jeff thought the security guard and the woman had been attacked and that armed robbers were responsible.
Then a neighbour revealed something disturbing.
He had seen the woman and the security guard moving items into a bus the previous day.
Other neighbours confirmed it.
They initially assumed they were just moving excess materials because the project was almost complete.
But after the police got involved, investigations suggested otherwise.
The woman and the security guard had disappeared and had not been seen in their homes for days.
It appeared to be a case of conspiracy and theft, what was stolen was estimated to have been over10 million naira!
Since then, Mr. Jeff has changed.
A once warm and social man now barely speaks to people.
Apart from a few of us close to him, he keeps his distance.
A single act of betrayal destroyed the trust he spent a lifetime building.
The painful truth is this:
Sometimes, the person you help is the same person who hurts you the most.
But kindness should never die because of the actions of a few.