The young worker allegedly carted away two pieces of luggage belonging to a woman who had just arrived from Britain.

A young man who works as a temporary staff with the Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport was recently picked up by airport police for allegedly stealing two pieces of luggage belonging to a woman who had arrived from Britain. According to the woman, she arrived in the country two days earlier without her luggage and was later called at about 3 am to come and collect it.

On arriving at the airport, she discovered that two pieces of luggage containing clothes, PhD dissertation files and memory sticks in which the dissertation data was saved, were missing. After asking around, customs officials and airline staff confirmed that they had actually checked in the missing luggage. The matter was then reported to airport police officers who picked up the staff later the following morning.

After initially denying any knowledge on the theft, he later confessed, saying he bought some of the items from airline staff. The soiled PhD dissertation papers, other particulars and a torn knapsack, were later discovered dumped in airport trash cans. But the memory sticks and the lady's sets of suits could not all be found.

After a few days of detention in the airport, the suspected thief was handed over to the Mfou State Counsel for possible prosecution. According to the lady, the boy, whose father also works at the airport and has been fighting hard to get the matter settled amicably, has already gotten his son released by the State Counsel. The lady says she has hired the services of a lawyer to see how to pursue the matter further. She explains that the data she has lost in the memory sticks is so invaluable as she is yet to defend the PhD thesis and does not have back up information anywhere.