OUR CORRESPONDENT narrates the tale of a tricky and cheeky gate installer who nearly conned him out of his money to do a repair job, and how an ingenious plan helped in recovering the money he had paid in advance for the job. Here’s what happened…

IF I’m the only one who has had some disappointing experiences with ‘professionals’ we know as watch repairers, mechanics, cobblers or shoe repairers and tailors, among others, shout yes!
I’m inclined to believe, though, that you’ll be lucky to shout yes because, like me, you surely must also have encountered these people and been  their victim.
The experiences will vary from the class of professional you’re dealing with; if it’s a watch repairer, tailor or shoe mender, you’re likely to have been told to go and collect your item(s) at an appointed date and time and, when you did, found the professional busy working on somebody else’s watch while yours made the pending list, gathering lots of dust in the process..
Some time in March this year, 2014, I needed to fix the squeaking, noisy gate at my property that was a nuisance to my family, as it was to my neighbours.
I thought of no other person to do the job than the man who installed the gate when I completed my structure in 2011 before we could move in.
Since I had his mobile number, I called the gate man and briefly described the problem to him and he said he needed to see the gate to enable him do a proper assessment and recommend an appropriate  solution.
At his request, I went to pick him up from his operational base on Alick Nkhata Road in Lusaka’s Kalingalinga Township.
After examining the gate, he declared that the rollers needed immediate replacement as the bearings were worn out.
He said the job would cost no more than K120.00 including labour. Luckily, I had the money on my person and I paid him up front.
I did this because of the trust from the first impression and also because  I knew his business premises.
He promised that he would do the job the following day on condition that, again, I picked him up from his operational base and, come the following day, I obliged, but called him first to ensure our agreement stood and also to agree the exact  pick up point.
He then suggested a postponement to do the job the following day as he had to attend to some ‘urgent matter’ that had just cropped up.
Though I wasn’t convinced about this sudden emergency, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to his proposal.
The following day came and went with me making frantic, but unanswered calls to remind him about his obligation, but to no avail.
It then dawned on me that this gate man was going to play hide and seek with me.
The situation with my gate and its broken rollers was not getting any better and neighbours kept asking me why I wasn’t doing something about it.
My explaination about what had happened and my efforts to redress the situation would not be taken seriously by some of them.
And so, one day, after a week or so, I texted the gate man this message: “I suggest you give me back the K120 I gave you for repair of my gate. I will find someone else to do the job.” The gate man did not respond. I followed this up with more phone calls, but he ignored them all.
The next day, I sent him another text message in which I changed my tone. It read: “You are not answering my calls or my messages since Sunday.
What do you want me to do next? You have failed to come and fix the gate after collecting my money. Please avoid trouble and let me know when I can come for my money.
If you don’t react today, I will report you to the police.”  I left it to him to complete the words …“for obtaining money by false pretence.”
The veiled threat of the involvement of a law enforcement agency in this matter would, ordinarily, scare some into hasty compliance with  the demand, but not so with this gate man.
Strangely, he was totally unfazed and appeared to believe the adage that silence is golden.
For all the wrong reasons! Necessity, though, is the mother of invention.
After wracking my brains for a solution, I decided to discuss the matter with my wife and we agreed that the best way to try to corner the elusive gateman was to set up a trap.
My wife would call him from her mobile phone whose number  he did not have  and pretend that, due to the quality of his work, someone had recommended him to her and so could he  come and take measurements for installation of a gate at her property somewhere in Lusaka?
Business opportunities like this rarely come easily and the gate man was excited at the prospect of manna dropping from heaven and, with an unexpected compliment, he quickly proposed the time and place for my wife to pick him up and take him to the house.
On the appointed date, I received a call from my younger brother Richard who is based in Mongu.
He called to inform me he’d arrived in Lusaka on a business trip and he had brought us some Litapi (fish), a tasty brand from Mongu and asked me to go and collect it in the evening  from where he was lodging.
Luckily, the lodge was within the vicinity of the rendezvous with the gate man. My wife and I agreed that there could be no better time to corner the gate man than the proposed evening.
If telepathy worked all the time, the gate man wouldn’t have made the appointment, but thank God, it didn’t and he showed up!.
After going to the lodge, I asked my brother to come along with us in our car as we drove to the meeting place with the gate man.
I told my brother to act as a police officer when the conman was in sight. After 10 minutes’ drive from the lodge, we’d reached the rendezvous.
I took care to park my car at a strategic distance from where I could monitor the unfolding drama as my wife coolly walked over to a service station where the gate man had been waiting for her.
My brother, the acting cop, escorted my wife; I remained in the car. It was getting a little dark now, but not too dark for one to fail to recognise someone one knew or had met before.
And so, I saw my wife ambling towards the car with the gate man who had tactfully been engaged in some kind of conversation about installation of the  gate at her non -existent house!
When they were two-three metres away from the car, I saw the gate man. He seemed to recognize the car and my brother and my wife kept the conversation going with the suspicious gateman, who seemed capable of succumbing to the temptation of bolting that instant. Fortunately, he didn’t
Presently, I came out of the car and walked straight towards the trio-my wife, my brother and our con-gateman. “Good evening,” I said to the gate man. “Good …eve… Sir,” he stammered a little, patronizingly.
“Do you remember or recognize me?”
“Yes, I do”
“Now, tell me, why have you been ignoring my calls and my text messages about the promise you made to repair my gate?” I’d taken over my brother’s ‘job’!
“Sorry, I have been… busy…”
“Nonsense! Busy with what?” I challenged him.
“You know our job, customers can… call you any time and…”
“Look, I’m not interested in your cock and bull story. Do you know that it is against the laws of this country to obtain money by false pretence?”
The man exploded: “Is that why you were talking about reporting me to police in your text message? I cannot be arrested by the police because I did not steal,” he declared self-righteously.
Seeing that his understanding of the law was less than elementary, I decided not to waste his or our time and told him: “If you did not steal, then why are you clinging to my money when you have failed to do the job you promised? Can I have my K120 now!”
Seriously  speaking, K120 is not a lot of money to some, really, but on principle, and at law, the amount involved is not an issue; the issue is theft.
Theft is theft, no matter how it is committed. I think my tone sent a message stronger than my numerous calls and text messages combined!
I saw the gate man fidgeting with his trouser pockets and, in no time, he managed to fish out some notes, some very soiled, counted them with the I-hate-you look on his face, but he had no option but to surrender. I suspected this sudden payment had ruined his day’s budget.
But I didn’t care about punching him way below the belt. It was pay -back time for me.
I thanked him for co-operating under pressure and reminded him that, in future he should be more careful with money matters because he could meet someone who believed more in the police than phone calls, less so text messages!
Obviously humiliated, he started walking away as he grumbled that no one would ever take him to the police on a matter like this, because he had not stolen. For our part, however, our mission was accomplished. We jumped into our car and drove off.
The following day, we found someone to fix the noisy gate using the same money we’d recovered from the cocky gate man.
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