A true life story.

A young man went into a barbing saloon and sat down waiting for his turn. About 30minutes later, Police invaded the barbing saloon and arrested all the clients in the saloon (the young dude inclusive). After lot of enquires, humiliation and embarrassments (trust the Police), he learnt that a gang of robbers entered the saloon after a robbery incident about the same time he did so he became a suspect by virtue of his presence at the saloon at that time.

Unfortunately he spent days in the prison with the other gang member who truly confessed to the Police that he isn't one of them but the Police were having none of it. After some days, his family had to gather funds to hire a lawyer since they've been advised that he will be charged to court alongside the other robbers.

The hired lawyer spoke with the Policeman in charge of the case and learnt the timeframe of the robbery based on the call made to the Police station and the victim's statement. Fortunately, his young man had gone to buy electricity at that particular time from a local vendor before he left for the saloon hence the family could provide a receipt as proof that he was somewhere else as at the time of the robbery. The lawyer used that to establish an alibi for him (alongside the confessions from the other gang members) to secure his release.

That event made me think to myself, when most of us buy items from grocery stores, filling stations, mini marts or withdraw funds from the ATM, we are quick to squeeze the receipts into the nearest dustbin, some of us even chew it . Of course, we believe we do not have any need of it but the time stamp on that receipt could be a saving grace someday. Especially when you need to provide a solid alibi of where you were on a particular occasion.

Another situation in which these receipts could help is when people get missing, trails of transaction timestamps, invoices and receipts could really help the family and police to figure out what happened and when it happened.

We live in Nigeria hence we need to be extra careful lest we become victims of circumstances, situations or events.

This however does not fully apply to digital trails....maybe I'd do another article on that one.
Cheers