Whose The Thief?

One place they moved us to was near a good-sized city. I

frequented the city with other people, browsing for work or just

enjoying mingling with the Thai people. There is a lot of

similarity in the language, and getting around was not a big problem.

Here we were placed in tents. One night a thief stole--the best

I could figure out would have been silver bars. I remember the

bags were heavy. Maybe it was just only one bag or several

bags. We heard the snap of the tent either being slit or ripped.

The bags were checked and were missing. The pursuit was on for

trying to recover the stolen item in the night, but to no avail. When

day break came other people helped to search the surrounding

area, looking under every bush. We suspected that the thief

could have not gone to far because it was heavy, and because

we were alerted to give the chase at the onset once we found items

missing. Before we gave up hope, there was a pond next to the

tents. One was sent down to dive for the lost treasure in the

muddy water, and sure enough at the bottom lay the silver bars.

I don't remember if the thief had taken any out of the bag or not.

If we had not recovered the stolen items that very day, our chance
was slim against the thief's trickery.

Oun Iem made it to Thailand

I have mentioned of Oun Iem being in Battambong when we left

Oddar Mean Cheay. I remember him telling us how he faked

being "dumb" to escape captured by the Khmer Rouge patroling

the route on which he rode his bicycle to get to Oddar Meancheay.

Of course, when he arrived and found that we were not home, he

made his way to Thailand through the forest. By this time,

the Khmer Rouge were guarding the main road that leads to

Thailand and planting land mines for those who tried to escape.

We had no idea of what happened to him until he showed up at

camp unexpectedly. Another incident was of a woman whose

husband was suspected dead and she was prepared to marry

a Thai husband, when her original husband showed up and

reunited with her again.