- A good Samaritan from Fisantekraal, July Sakusweswe, returned a lost top box containing valuable items to Donovan Marais, a biker from Durbanville.
- The box, which fell off Marais’ bike on the N7, contained his laptop, wallet, and expensive tools.
- July’s honesty and quick actions, along with a prayer from Marais’ girlfriend, ensured all items were returned intact.
A good Samaritan from Fisantekraal has restored faith in humanity by going out of his way to pick up and return a Durbanville biker’s top box containing valuable items.
The top box fell off the bike of Donovan Marais, who lives in Langeberg Heights, on the N7 right next to the Dunoon squatter camp on 13 June.
The top box of the bike (for non-bikers, it is the box on the back of some bikes that is used for storage) contained his Apple MacBook, his wallet with all his bank cards, ID, driver’s license and two bags with expensive bike related tools and gear.
“I did not realise it until I was stopped by a motorist almost 2 km further on,” Marais says.
He immediately turned around, rushed back to where the motorist said it fell off, “but as suspected (within five minutes) it was gone! I was distraught, to say the least. Angry, upset and totally shocked”.
“Not only was my expensive laptop I got at the beginning of this year gone with all my data and digital memories, but also my wallet with all my bank cards, personal information and almost R500 in cash.
“Then there is the R12 500 top box and the tools and bike gear.
“I started to cry. How could I have been so stupid? How did I not realise it fell off? I did not even lock it when I left the office, so whatever was inside was gone,” he says.
After searching everywhere for more than an hour, Marais eventually went home.
“(I was) totally distraught! This is a massive financial loss,” he says.
Fortunately, he has “Find My Device” (an Apple software product) on his iPhone and MacBook.
“It’s proprietary software that records the device’s location and enables you to find your device.
His girlfriend came home and said: “Let’s pray, have faith.”
She said a prayer and within five minutes the iPhone screen lit up: “MacBook located”.
“It came online and sent a location. Now, I lost the top box in Parklands, almost 40 km west of my home and the MacBook ‘pinged’ 10 km away from my current location. What’s the chance?
“We got into the car and rushed in the direction of the last known location the MacBook sent, not knowing what to expect,” he says.
Once lost, now found
On their way to the location, his phone rang all of a sudden.
He was phoned by a man, later identified as July Sakusweswe, with the good news: he picked up Marais’ top box.
“July, an honest and friendly Zimbabwean, saw it fall off and stopped his construction truck in the middle of the road. He picked it up in Parklands and took it to his home in Fisantekraal.
“He apparently struggled to get the box open – the box has a tricky locking mechanism which I did not lock when I left the office – and found my old diary with my phone number in the laptop bag and called me, not knowing that the moment he opened the top box and the laptop bag, the MacBook would send a location,” Marais says.
“July told me he saw it fall off and stopped to pick it up. He knew that at the place the box fell off, it would have been taken and gone forever!
“He apparently looked for me on the way, hooted at my going in the opposite direction, but I did not see him.
“Back to the miracle … July stayed on the phone with me until we reached his house in Fisantekraal.”
Marais was astonished to find all his belongings intact.
“Everything was there – not one cent missing out of my wallet. July even insisted that I check the top box, my laptop and wallet. Not a single thing was out of place. Amazing!” he says.
Marais says this has taught him two things: there are still good, honest people out there and there’s power in prayer.
“Thank you to my dearest Adriana for your unwavering faith and the prayer!”
The 47-year-old July, originally from Rusape in Zimbabwe where his family lives, said to TygerBurger he was brought up by his parents to be honest and that he lives those values.
