“You would’ve laughed at me, Kim, when thieves in Windhoek, Namibia punked me like a rag doll.”
I got sloppy, Sis. Lazy.
I let my guard down in a “safe” city.
Namibia is not a dangerous place, relatively speaking. Windhoek is not Joburg (where armed robbery is front and center). So, I got complacent.
But petty theft happens in every big city, and Windhoek is no exception.
In a large supermarket, a group of thieves worked me like a red-headed step-child.
At checkout, I noticed my backpack’s top pocket was open and I knew immediately my camera had been stolen.
“I didn’t learn my lesson, Sis.”
The backpacker’s Bible clearly states in Roamings chapter 6, verse 9, “Thou shalt never put valuables in a backpack’s top pocket without locking it.”
Flash back to Lviv, Ukraine, where I witnessed a pack of Roma women steal a German tourist’s wallet from the top pocket of his backpack.
But I still put my four-hundred-dollar camera in that same, vulnerable, top pocket. And worst of all, I didn’t lock it up.
You’re right, Kim, brilliant!
“The supermarket’s cameras caught everything.”
I went to the security office, and sure enough, everything was on video.
One guy blocked my path and another blocked my view, while their quarterback unzipped the pocket and stole my camera.
The security officer told me she recognized the men.
“We see them here all the time. They’re three-finger guys. We’ll catch them.”
I had no aspirations of seeing my camera again, I just wanted a copy of the security-camera video to make this blog post.
The supermarket required a police report to release the security camera video. So, I went to the police station and filed a report.
I thought nobody would even read my police report.
But miraculously, not only did the police read my report, they reviewed the supermarket video, then caught the thieves, AND returned my camera … hand-delivering it to my Airbnb!
“Kudos to hard working detectives Marie and Symie.”
Once again, Kim, like dad always says, “I fell in a bucket of shit and came out smellin’ like a rose!”
Namibia has picture-postcard photo opportunities everywhere.
Hence, we have multiple Kim’s Views in Namibia.
If my camera wasn’t stolen, we would have headed north to Angola with only two Kim’s Views in Namibia.
I was satisfied with our Kim’s Views at Fish River Canyon (only the Grand Canyon is bigger) and the Mars-like Sossusvlei sand dunes.
But I decided to stay near Windhoek for a couple weeks to extract my revenge; the prosecutor said we could go to court and put the “three-finger guys” in jail for a while.
That gave us the chance to visit Swakopmund—only three hours west of Windhoek—and go dune bashing at Sandwich Harbor.
While waiting for a court date, we scored our awesome Kim’s View at Sandwich Bay.
“If my camera wasn’t stolen, we wouldn’t have this all-time-classic Kim’s View at Sandwich Bay.”
Alas, I never heard from the police or prosecutor again. But maybe I’ll finally learn my lesson.
“Never keep valuables in the top pocket of your backpack without locking it!”
So, that’s the weird back story, Sis, behind our killer Kim’s View at Sandwich Bay.
