Professional logic
- Miguel Fernández
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
It was a beautiful Saturday night back in 1964, in a month of September in Maceió, and the family of Mr. Jorge and Mrs. Marieta all went to a “debutante ball” at the famous Fênix club, where the local aristocracy gathered. The party was a success.
The girls who turned 15 that year, their parents, grandparents, cousins, friends, the whole family, the suitors, the cream of Alagoas society present. Plenty of food and drinks, and of excellent quality. First-rate music, by a famous band-orchestra from Salvador. The “crooner” was Orlandivo, from Rio de Janeiro.
The “debutante balls” served for parents to show their daughters to society and it was understood that, from then on, when they danced the waltz, each one with her father, they became candidates to become engaged and married, according to the customs of the time.
They stayed until the music ended, that is, they arrived late and all went to sleep, a couple of grandparents, the cousins from the countryside, the two daughters, the two sons, father, mother and holy spirits. They slept deeply.
They woke up on Sunday, around 9:00 a.m., much later than usual. As had been agreed with the housemaids, breakfast would be served at 9:30 a.m. So, at 9:30, almost everyone was in the dining room for the family “desayuno” when a scream from Mrs. Marieta was heard, coming from the parents’ bedroom.
Everyone rushed to see what it could be, and Mrs. Marieta would not stop screaming: “We were robbed, we were robbed!”
By then, the family began to realize what had happened, and they also began to lament: “they took everything!”
Indeed, when they had arrived from the party, they had taken off their rings, earrings, brooches, necklaces, bracelets, watches, wallets with money, in short, all the gold disappeared, including Mr. Jorge’s .38 and the one belonging to his brother from the countryside, which slept on Jorge’s bedside table and on the one in the guest room. Even the wedding rings of the married people were gone. Complete disaster!
In 1964, very few people had air conditioning; it was ceiling fan, and even that was something!
Some thief had entered through the window and taken everything. Great boldness, with everyone at home!
Mr. Jorge went to the police station, filed the report, and life went on.
About 45 days passed and the police chief sent for Mr. Jorge, who went accompanied by a son who was studying medicine, Álvaro.
Arriving there, the police chief showed them some watches and some jewelry, for possible identification, to see whether some of them were theirs. Bingo! Among what was shown to them, they recognized some.
That was enough for the police chief to have everything that had been recovered brought out; Jorge’s children, the mother-in-law and father-in-law, the brother from the countryside, each one recognized their belongings and they recovered quite a few things.
After the robbery, the police had kept watch on the receiver of that kind of merchandise. When the thief thought enough time had passed, he went there. The spies noticed something, put one thing together with the other, and there it was.
When they were already leaving the police station, Mr. Jorge asked the police chief to see the thief.
The police chief, who was Jorge’s childhood friend, ordered the prisoner to be brought handcuffed into his office, with Jorge and his son Álvaro there.
And Jorge decided to scold the thief:
_ You disrespected me, you entered my house with me right there, you humiliated me before my children, my family, why did you not rob me when I was not there, you wretch!
And the thief:
_ Sir, I am a thief but I am not stupid, I did what had to be done; at the end of parties, everyone sleeps deeply and leaves everything to be put in the safe the next day. You just pass by and collect it. Forgive me there, but I did not mean to offend anyone.
True story, heard from the dear Alagoan, friend and colleague, engineer Vera Maria Costa Cansanção in 1987, in Rio de Janeiro.
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