One of the great things I gained from my years in US Federal Service was the opportunity to work with a lot of great men and women. Some of them impressed me a lot with their leadership … you might like a story I wrote once about a fellow named Bob who taught me a lot about myself and what it means to be an expert (and if your name is also Bob, this one is for you 
).
Another man whom I learned a heck of a lot from was a man named Russ Ondusko. Russ was kind of a cross between a fantastically qualified radar technician and a backwoods philosopher reminiscent of Will Rogers.
One of Russ’s favorite sayings would come up often when someone on the job had a success that defied logic or one of us had something go right when, by all the odds, it should have gone wrong … "Even blind hog will find an acorn once in a while".
Here in the Philippines we are not, in my opinion, blessed with the best of law enforcement. There is a spider web of often conflicting law enforcement agencies, often with no clear division of responsibilities. The main agency, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is chronically understaffed under-funded and has, at least at some times, been tainted with scandal. The pitifully low salaries paid to police officers almost seems to guarantee that their level of competence will often not be very high and when a man is asked to risk his life in a job that doesn’t even pay basic "hole in the wall" living expanses it is not at all surprising that some fall victim to the lure of corruption.
But still the men and women of the PNP soldier on, and often do a very creditable job … in some cases, like this one, substituting diligence, observational skills and simple logic for the flashy tools we see being used every day on CSI or Texas Swat. At least some of the Philippines’ rice stocks are now safer since one gang won’t be stealing for a while.
Police find Philippine thieves via rice trail
08/30/2008 | 10:16 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Police say four thieves have been arrested after unwittingly leaving a trail of rice stolen from a warehouse in the central Philippines.
Senior Inspector Danilo Francisco says the four men were charged Friday with robbery.
Francisco says they broke into a warehouse in Bacolod city before dawn Wednesday, cutting the barbed wire on walls surrounding the compound and hauling off four sacks of rice, a television set and assorted grocery items in a tricycle.
Unknown to the thieves, one of the sacks of rice had a hole. Grain spilled through the hole and into the street, leading police to their house about 500 yards (450 meters) from the warehouse. Full Rice Tracking Story here.
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