Rose and her sister -- LNN

By Lara Fominof

Rose Aladedunye – kindness to a stranger, and the man who paid her back

Sep 8, 2019 | 10:39 PM

LETHBRIDGE — Something a little bit extraordinary happened on Tuesday, Sept. 4, as Rose Aladedunye was working. It was something neither she, nor her sister- who was minding one of the stores she owns, ever expected would happen.

A man, she knew only as “Jaggel” – because they didn’t share names when he and his friends came into her liquor store on several occasions prior – asked to see her. He wanted to do something that had been weighing on his conscience.

We’ll get back to that in a moment.

Over the last several months Aladedunye began noticing a group of men who would periodically come into her store. Liquor thefts began occurring on a regular basis. Her store, which was previously 1000 sq. Ft. was too large to manage and she wanted to downsize.

She went to the City of Lethbridge and was told she needed to increase security there. So, she divided the store into two spaces. One became a senior’s networking and WIFI lounge, and the other remained a liquor store. And then, instead of putting up cameras everywhere, she decided to try something completely different when that group of people went there.

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“I decided to be nice to them,” she explained. “They are people. Sometimes when they would come into the store, I just didn’t want to be discriminatory, because they are people; they have friends, they have families and I don’t want to put their pictures on the wall, because… that won’t help.”

When that group, including “Jaggel” came into the store on subsequent visits, she instead shook their hands and talked to them, “so at least when they leave that day, they would have a good experience.”

Since then, she said she discovered that selling is just one part of her business. Building relationships is the other.

“Especially for this particular guy,” she explained. “He would come in and say, ‘please, can I borrow your phone?’ So, I’ll give him my phone, and he would never make a call, but he would still come back. And so, I noticed anytime he makes such ‘calls,’ one bottle of mine would disappear. Every single time. But I thought, ok. Maybe this person needs to make this call to this person to come to pick him up, because he doesn’t drive. He doesn’t do anything.”

The two began talking about general things; his life, his addictions to drugs and alcohol. She gave him a place to sit, and some water. As someone who came to Canada from Nigeria 13 years ago, and put herself through college and university, Aladedunye thought there might be some similarities between her African culture and First Nations culture. She told him so.

“You have to move on and keep believing. If you think that your grandfather or great grandfather’s years would affect you now; your dada’s gone, your mama’s gone, and you still want to live in those kinds of lifestyle- it’s going to be hatred. It’s going to be separation. Your mind is going to be…not making you to think straight. And he said, yeah, he’s going to think about it and make some changes.”

She said at that point he appeared to be going through a particularly rough time – cut off perhaps, from others who were important in his life.

“He needed someone to talk to. He needed someone to hear him out,” she continued. “If I let him go like that, in that state, he might go and to something bad on the street. At that point, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t connecting. So, I just let him sit down, drink water and relax.”

She didn’t see him again until last Tuesday, when he asked to see her, and she wondered why.

“He said, I want to pay you back.”

“To pay me back for what?” she asked.

“Everything I’ve been stealing from you. My conscience didn’t allow me to just rest. So, I’m here to pay you back.”

She asked him if he remembered everything he had taken from her store, and he pointed out several items.

“He knew,” she said in awe. “I thought maybe he was going to deny it again.”

“Jaggel” then took out a bank card placed it into a debit machine. He paid Rose Aladedunye back $112.

He thanked her for listening to him and told her he had been sober for the last four months. No drugs. No alcohol. She asked if she could take some pictures of him, and he told her she could. Those pictures are all she has to identify him.

“I don’t even have his name. I don’t even have his number.”

Aladedunye understands that her approach might not work for others, but in her case, she says thefts are now almost non-existent.

“When you’re too strict with people, it will harden them more. They want to fight back. And then most local businesses – they don’t want anyone to steal from them – nobody wants to lose. We want to gain.”

On occasion, it now means allowing someone to pay what they have for a product, and not always what she might sell it for. She won’t make as much money on that particular transaction but feels overall her business has actually recovered after the rash of thefts before.

Rose and the man known only as “Jaggel” at her store Sept. 4 – Photo Courtesy Rose Aladedunye

As for the man who paid her back? Aladedunye hopes they can connect again, soon. She wants him to know that she’s proud of what he’s accomplished over the last several months. Oh, and that he forgot his sunglasses at her store.

“Jaggel…there’s more opportunities for you, you can still make it through. I need you. I need to get a hold of you. I need to find someone that really knows you!”

And she’ll keep the sunglasses safe until then.