37. We get ‘stung' retrospectively in Jo'burg...Ouch!

After two weeks of alternating sessions between Archie’s Club and The Flying Saucer it was decided we would continue down to Cape Town. Cape Town had always our final destination. 

The band got paid nightly, somewhere in the region of thirty to forty Rand a night. We would peel off a few rand for the next day’s food & skayfs and the rest we would put into our ‘War Chest’, a briefcase which was left locked away in the hotel’s safe. 

                                              Slightly OTT but you get the picture


Incidentally we had paid the hotel up front...two week in advance.

It was decided we would drive down to Cape Town immediately after our final session at The Flying Saucer. So before we set off for the club that night we packed up and checked out the hotel. However when the receptionist handed over our ‘War Chest’, aka briefcase, from the safe it was completely empty...well completely empty of cash. All our money...every last cent was gone. 

When confronted the hotel manager he immediately phoned the police.

Ten minutes later a middle-aged man entered and introduced himself as Detective Sergeant Somebody-Or-Other from the Jo’burg C.I.D. We explained what had happened. He checked the briefcase. Had a quick word with the hotel manager then turned to us and with a shrugged said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do. It was only our word that cash was missing from the briefcase...there was no actual proof. So that was it...Ouch! we got stung!

...at least three hundred rand down the pan. 

The few rand we had on us was shared out and still had to be paid for the  final session...we reckoned we would have enough to make it down to Cape Town.

That episode illustrates just how naive we were. It never occurred to us, until later, that the whole thing could have been a set up – a ‘sting’, ‘scam’.  The detective sergeant never actually showed us any identification. For all we know he needn't have been with the police force at all...and the whole thing could have been cooked up by the hotel manager.