Cash-in-transit guard steals traffic cop’s money being remitted to senior officer

A junior traffic police officer is in trouble after the day’s takings he was remitting to his boss through a cash-in-transit firm were stolen by one of the firm’s employees. With his boss known to be merciless, the junior officer is now a worried man trying everything in his power to recover the money.

“Frankly I can’t face my boss now without passing by the local first... he is a man who doesn’t handle disappointment well and he would not understand how I was able to reach my daily targets but allowed the money to get stolen by a mere security guard,” the junior traffic officer revealed on condition of anonymity.

As a result career prospects for the young officer look grim. Among the things the junior officer stands to lose are promotions, which would put him in a position to have officers under him collecting bribes on his behalf instead of doing the dirty work himself.

“Now I might be assigned administrative duties which would mean there will be no easy money anymore and I am stuck to depending on my salary like many other useless unfortunate Kenyans,” said the hapless officer.

Through the machinations of his boss, the junior officer is also likely to be moved to a remote area with little or no vehicular traffic and therefore no opportunities to extort money from matatus and other motorists.

Prodded on why he was sending money to a senior officer via a cash transportation firm, the junior officer explained that with banks and mobile money statements being used in vetting exercises, he had to come up with an alternative method of remitting proceeds of the ‘daily targets’ his senior had set for him.

“I had to get creative and use other channels which I am assured the police service commission won’t go looking for transactions’ statements from,” said the officer. “And since my daily collections are as huge as those of supermarkets or banks I thought I could use what they use – cash in transit vans. Little did I know that the one common thing security guards working with cash transportation firms seem to have these days is a knack for theft,” he added.

Looking visibly angry the junior officer could not stop himself from hurling a few choice epithets at the security guard who had by then already vanished without a trace.

“How can he steal that kind of money from an honest and hardworking officer? Useless piece of s**t, if he really wants that kind of money he should have become a traffic police officer. Where was he when we were bribing our way to join the force?” wondered the cop.

The junior officer whose date with the national police service commission for vetting is yet to come and who has been heard to throw some choice insults at Kavuludi and Company has urged security firms that offer money transportation services to vet their employees thoroughly so that such situations are prevented from happening in future:

“Security firms need to ensure that their employees are people of integrity, trustworthy, honest and incorruptible,” he argued.

While money in transit is usually insured, what is complicating matters is the fact that the theft cannot be reported to the police so that the insurer can kick-start the compensation process. This is because the source of the money will be questioned and could turn out to be career suicide. The only way now left for the junior cop to recover his money is witchcraft.

“That security guard had better be warned... if he lives in a concrete jungle he better move to the countryside for grass will soon become his staple diet,” the traffic cop vowed.