Let's Go
I wish I could say our return to Cape Town was bitter-sweet. I wish I could confess that even though we had so much trouble with Columbus it all worked out in the end, and we have nothing but good things to say about his real parents who welcomed him back with open arms and with a light slap on the bumper sent him to his room to think hard about all the trouble he gave us. We all would laugh together over a bottle of fine South African wine sharing funny stuck-in-the-mud-lions-around-failed-starter stories and then part ways as best friends if only... If only we could find the bastards!
The morning before the day of handover I phoned the owner of the company and reminded him of our arrival. "Sure!" he said, "it's right here in my appointment book. You are flying out right after, right? We can drop you off at the airport. Can't wait to see you guys!" The next day we gave Columbus a proper bath and drove him to where we'd picked him up exactly three month ago - tearing him away from a big crowd of 4x4 friends and bigger overland trucks in what then looked like a very busy shop swarming with mechanics and smiling receptionists. Now, the lot, the garage, the offices were all empty and swept clean. Only one little red VW Beetle shell with no engine remained, abandoned and lonely, in the middle of all the emptiness that was once Columbus' home.
We took a few minutes to bask in the sweet delusion that there must have been some sort of misunderstanding, but common sense couldn't wait any longer and after performing an I-told-you-so dance gave way to fury.
I ran across the street to the neighbors. They said the company had moved - no idea where. I phoned the owner, the employees, and the owner's wife. Before, my phone calls and emails had been answered within a minute. Now, it was like all my efforts to get in touch had disappeared into some black hole together with our $8,000 (the 70% of the initial payment that we were supposed to get back upon return of Columbus),.
I finally got in touch with the company's business partners, who had once directed us to Columbus' parents in the first place, and they were able to successfully get in touch with an employee of the company, but all the information they were able to pass on to us was that for a "very, very good reason" the employees were "instructed not to communicate" with us. What the hell is going on?!
We had no other choice but to go to the police and have them track down Columbus' owners. Police was surprisingly helpful, and only after four hours of research produced a copy of a police report that the owner of the company had filed when some two years ago somebody had damaged his property. I wonder how much he owed to the "perpetrator". Two policemen accompanied us to the address on the report, but it had already been occupied by new tenants for about a year.
We had missed our flight to the Eastern coast and we were falling off our feet, exhausted by the day's events, but the world is not without kind people - the police woman who was with us, it turned out, owned a hostel. Seeing our long faces, she gave us a fabulous room (with towels!) and said not to worry about paying. It didn't solve our biggest problem, but I was just so happy to be able to smile about something.
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I fell asleep to the sound of Shurik's fingers impatiently hitting the keys of our laptop. He set out to find what really happened to the company who owned Columbus, but all he found was just more bad news. The search turned up ads by the company owner selling everything from his personal cars to his goldfish. It seemed less and less likely that we would get our money back.
Shurik also got in touch with a few other "adoptive parents" we met on the road. One couple had just returned their car but no money was put back in their account, and another was in the same boat as us - babysitting a van who's parent's never came back home.
Carla, the police woman, was a great help. Being in the tourism industry, she had gotten in touch with anybody she knew to find out what had happened, but it was the weekend and nobody could help her. Unable to do much but pace back and forth like an angry animal in a cage, I tried to help by not interrupting, left Shurik at the computer, and watched TV for most of the day, taking intermissions to have a cigarette and bitch to other guests about our troubles. By the end of the day, everybody in the hostel was compassionately patting me on the back and asking if there were any good news.
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Somehow I didn't loose hope that on Monday everything will become clear. I was already ready to find out some horrible accident has occurred and our petty material worries are nothing compared to the devastating tragedy Columbus' parents must have been going through. Because, come on, who does this to people? There must be a very (very!) good reason.
Nevertheless, we hired a lawyer.
Monday came and nothing changed. We left Columbus with Carla and flew to the Eastern coast in hopes diving with sharks will take our mind off the kind of "sharks" we apparently were dealing with here.
Already in Umkomaas we have received the anticlimactic and most obvious reason to the company's disappearance act - it had gone bankrupt and the owner was just too scared to show his face to the clients.
Our negotiations with the business partners of the company drag on and most likely are useless. We can try to put Columbus in our name, most likely illegally, but that will do us little good, it being in the condition that it is.
Thank you for visiting South Africa. Please come again.
The morning before the day of handover I phoned the owner of the company and reminded him of our arrival. "Sure!" he said, "it's right here in my appointment book. You are flying out right after, right? We can drop you off at the airport. Can't wait to see you guys!" The next day we gave Columbus a proper bath and drove him to where we'd picked him up exactly three month ago - tearing him away from a big crowd of 4x4 friends and bigger overland trucks in what then looked like a very busy shop swarming with mechanics and smiling receptionists. Now, the lot, the garage, the offices were all empty and swept clean. Only one little red VW Beetle shell with no engine remained, abandoned and lonely, in the middle of all the emptiness that was once Columbus' home.
We took a few minutes to bask in the sweet delusion that there must have been some sort of misunderstanding, but common sense couldn't wait any longer and after performing an I-told-you-so dance gave way to fury.
I ran across the street to the neighbors. They said the company had moved - no idea where. I phoned the owner, the employees, and the owner's wife. Before, my phone calls and emails had been answered within a minute. Now, it was like all my efforts to get in touch had disappeared into some black hole together with our $8,000 (the 70% of the initial payment that we were supposed to get back upon return of Columbus),.
I finally got in touch with the company's business partners, who had once directed us to Columbus' parents in the first place, and they were able to successfully get in touch with an employee of the company, but all the information they were able to pass on to us was that for a "very, very good reason" the employees were "instructed not to communicate" with us. What the hell is going on?!
We had no other choice but to go to the police and have them track down Columbus' owners. Police was surprisingly helpful, and only after four hours of research produced a copy of a police report that the owner of the company had filed when some two years ago somebody had damaged his property. I wonder how much he owed to the "perpetrator". Two policemen accompanied us to the address on the report, but it had already been occupied by new tenants for about a year.
We had missed our flight to the Eastern coast and we were falling off our feet, exhausted by the day's events, but the world is not without kind people - the police woman who was with us, it turned out, owned a hostel. Seeing our long faces, she gave us a fabulous room (with towels!) and said not to worry about paying. It didn't solve our biggest problem, but I was just so happy to be able to smile about something.
----------------
I fell asleep to the sound of Shurik's fingers impatiently hitting the keys of our laptop. He set out to find what really happened to the company who owned Columbus, but all he found was just more bad news. The search turned up ads by the company owner selling everything from his personal cars to his goldfish. It seemed less and less likely that we would get our money back.
Shurik also got in touch with a few other "adoptive parents" we met on the road. One couple had just returned their car but no money was put back in their account, and another was in the same boat as us - babysitting a van who's parent's never came back home.
Carla, the police woman, was a great help. Being in the tourism industry, she had gotten in touch with anybody she knew to find out what had happened, but it was the weekend and nobody could help her. Unable to do much but pace back and forth like an angry animal in a cage, I tried to help by not interrupting, left Shurik at the computer, and watched TV for most of the day, taking intermissions to have a cigarette and bitch to other guests about our troubles. By the end of the day, everybody in the hostel was compassionately patting me on the back and asking if there were any good news.
----------------
Somehow I didn't loose hope that on Monday everything will become clear. I was already ready to find out some horrible accident has occurred and our petty material worries are nothing compared to the devastating tragedy Columbus' parents must have been going through. Because, come on, who does this to people? There must be a very (very!) good reason.
Nevertheless, we hired a lawyer.
Monday came and nothing changed. We left Columbus with Carla and flew to the Eastern coast in hopes diving with sharks will take our mind off the kind of "sharks" we apparently were dealing with here.
Already in Umkomaas we have received the anticlimactic and most obvious reason to the company's disappearance act - it had gone bankrupt and the owner was just too scared to show his face to the clients.
Our negotiations with the business partners of the company drag on and most likely are useless. We can try to put Columbus in our name, most likely illegally, but that will do us little good, it being in the condition that it is.
Thank you for visiting South Africa. Please come again.