We got robbed.

I am currently in Cape Town with my partner Lea, overseeing the renovation of our house.

Last Thursday, after lunch in the city, we drove out to an industrial area about 30 minutes from Cape Town to look at tiles and flooring.

We visited five or six different suppliers, comparing materials, quality, and prices before heading back to our Airbnb.

When we arrived, I opened the trunk to grab my backpack.

My laptop was gone.

So was Lea’s iPad.

Lea immediately opened the “Find My iPad” app on her phone.

Within seconds, we could see the device moving through a township near the airport.

We had been robbed…

At first, I was mostly confused and couldn’t explain how that could have happened. I have never been robbed and I rarely lose something.

I thought maybe we’d left the bag at the café where we’d worked during lunch.

But we both clearly remembered carrying it to the car.

So we started retracing the day.

Either someone had somehow taken the devices out of my bag while we weren’t looking, or they had broken into the car.

We checked the glove compartment where we always keep cash for parking.

It was empty.

That answered it. They broke into our car.

But the strange part was that there were no signs of a break-in.

No broken window or damaged locks.

Nothing.

I was certain I’d locked the car. I always do.

So how did they get in?

Later that day, I mentioned the robbery in my founder community because we had a monthly live session scheduled which I needed to postpone.

One of the members is South African and explained something I’d never heard of before: car key jamming.

Someone stands nearby with a device that blocks the signal from your key fob.

You press lock but the car never receives the signal. So you walk away convinced it’s locked.

---

Suddenly, everything made sense.

They hadn’t broken into the car. They had simply opened it.

At first, I was angry.

I thought about the cost of replacing the laptop and iPad.

Both were relatively new.

I thought about setting everything up again.

The passwords. The accounts. The lost time.

But more than that, I felt violated.

Cape Town is a place we genuinely love.

And instead of preparing for the week ahead, I suddenly found myself dealing with police reports, insurance claims, password resets, and new hardware.

But a few hours later, my mood shifted.

I realised the bag was still there. They had taken the devices but they didn’t take everything else that was in the bag.

So my passport, my house keys from Munich and my drivers license were still there.

They could have taken everything. Would have probably been easier to just take the whole bag.

Instead, they took what they could sell and left the rest.

---

Oddly, I felt relieved.

It could have been much worse.

At the end it was “just” a laptop, an Ipad and a bit of cash.

Were were unharmed and all the rest was still there.

And then, if I’m honest, I found myself thinking about the person who did it.

What situation do you have to be in to spend your day walking through parking lots, hoping someone leaves something valuable behind?

I’m not excusing it.

But I understood it more than I expected to.

---

The honest part...

Standing there in that parking lot, I found myself thinking about how quickly the mind focuses on what’s gone.

The time it would take to replace everything. The hassle. The frustration.

For a few hours, that’s all I could see.

But then I looked at what was still there.

My passport. My driver’s licence. My house keys. Lea. Our health. The house we’re building.

And suddenly the situation felt very different.

---

The honest part is that five years ago this probably would have ruined my week. I would have spent days thinking about the money, the inconvenience, how it happened, and who was to blame.

Instead, after a few hours, I found myself moving on.

What surprised me wasn’t that someone stole my laptop.

What surprised me was how quickly I moved on.

Maybe that’s one of the few benefits of getting older. You realise that most setbacks aren’t as devastating as they first feel.

The mind immediately focuses on what’s been taken. But perhaps the more useful question is:

What’s still there?

See you next Tuesday.

Cheers,

Xaver

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