An Alternative Scenario To Becali"s Case

MAKE

The spectacular recovery of the car stolen from Gigi Becali on the night of 26/27 January diverted all the attention from the amazing fact that both the theft and the recovery took place in a window of only three hours.

But the record-setting fast reaction deserves more attention.

Upon telling the story on television (at a time when he did not suspect that he was going to be incriminated for it), Gigi Becali said: "I went into the bar to have a cigarette. When I went out, the car was gone. I made some phone calls to people. I asked my people to recover it and I told them that if they didn"t bring it back in an hour, bad things would happen."

The account opens the door to the following scenario to the story.

The statement that "I made some phone calls to people" suggests that Gigi Becali knew whom to call to inquire about the identity of the thieves.

It appears that their identity was disclosed to him minutes after he became aware of the theft.

But the miracle of the identification was not enough to recover the car. Mysteriously, one or two hours later, Becali"s bodyguards located the thieves in another car, driving in Bucharest.

Everything precise, flawless.

How did they do it?

I, for one, couldn"t have done it. Ok, it"s not a problem to hire bodyguards. And it"s plausible to make some phone calls around and find out from an acquaintance who did the job. It also may be plausible to find out the license plate numbers of the thieves" car.

And, if I had the names and the license plate numbers and the bodyguards, what would I do with all that?

Nothing.

On that night, on the spot, it would all be useless. I wouldn"t be able to ask the bodyguards to "drive around in Bucharest and find the thieves." It would be mission impossible. The needle in the haystack.

A possible explanation would be that Becali was in fact in touch with the police to identify the thieves" car in traffic. It is possible that Becali"s bodyguards received directions from the police to locate the thieves" car.

This kind of cooperation could explain the amazingly short time it took them to find the thieves.

In turn, this kind of cooperation would not be at all amazing.

After all, it was Becali who drove, in his car, the three officers from the special forces who escorted him to the police arrest.

Which seems to be a reasonable scenario.

The difference, in Becali"s case, is that he has more power than an ordinary citizen. And he used it.

Note: This scenario for the story behind the recovery of Becali"s car has its importance. If this is really the way things happened, the accusation that Becali "took justice in his own hands" becomes questionable and makes room for the alternative that he defended his own property, as any citizen is entitled to.