Petty Crimes Plague Tlokweng
Pini Bothoko | Monday February 1, 2021 15:54
The once calm Tlokweng has now turned into a haven for criminals. According to the police, the village is experiencing an upsurge in crime that has left law-abiding residents in constant fear of their lives.
Residents’ goods are stolen every day, whether day or night and not even the comfort of their homes can keep them safe as the perpetrators also find a way of breaking into their houses even in their presence.
Tlokweng Police assistant station commander, superintendent Goganang Pule has thus pleaded with residents to unite and cooperate with the police in the fight against crime.
He told The Monitor they are investigating a case in which unknown culprit(s) robbed a woman, driving away in a Toyota Runx at Engen Choppies mall in Tlokweng. Pule said he has seen residents’ claims on Facebook of sightings of a similar car.
“The said culprits are still at large but investigations are ongoing to locate them. The incident has left residents reeling in shock. We have seen similar claims on Facebook, but we have not received such reports,” he said. He added that usually the criminals attack people in malls and target the victims’ mobile phones, laptops and valuable goods, which afterwards they sell cheaply. He said even businesses are under attack citing the recent break-in at the Sefalana liquor store in the village.
Pule added that in the past there had been reports of businesses owners being held at gunpoint during the day.
Furthermore, Pule warned elders, especially women of a new scam as a number of them have lost huge sums of money after falling prey to fraudsters. He said the fraudsters, who used to terrorise women with expensive cars in Mogoditshane and Ramotswa a few years ago, have now moved to Tlokweng.
He said the criminals target unsuspecting women whom they con into disclosing their financial details, which results in their bank accounts emptied.
“The said fraudsters later claim to be police officers to deceive their victims with the aim of robbing them.
They target women who drive expensive cars, plant or put a large sums of money wrapped in a plastic next to their cars to strike a conversation with them.
One of them will pretend to be passing by and stop to alert the victim about the large sums of money next to her car. They recently attacked and robbed an elder who had wanted to buy livestock feeds. Even if I do not have records with me here, the victim has lost a lot of money,” he said.
He added that the trickster would then ask the victim where she was going and pretend to be going in the same direction as them. By offering such a person a lift, one would have fallen into the crook’s trap.
He said to win the victim’s trust, the fraudster would offer to share the money with her before dropping it off. Narrating the story, he said when stopping the car to drop him one would be hailed by a car with men claiming to be police officers on the trail of stolen money.
Pule said the other form of crime keeping police on their toes is that of fraud, where criminals cheat people by claiming to be advertising property for rent or sale. The perpetrators would then proceed to rob people of their hard-earned money.
He said when calling them on the phone to show interest in the property, they push unsuspecting individuals into sending money as deposit for the house or money for security if is for rental. Later, when trying to contact them their phones would be unavailable.
“We are currently investigating three cases in which people were robbed of large sums of money at the hands of the criminals who pretended to be selling and renting houses to them. I am pleading with members of the public not to trust people they communicate with on social media to a point of transferring money to them,” Pule said.