P'nP: Extortionist goes silent

2003-07-10 16:13

Johannesburg - Pick 'n Pay has had no contact with the person who tried to extort money from them through poisoning threats for 30 days, the supermarket chain and the police said on Thursday.

"We have not heard from the extortionist for 30 days. In... a number of similar extortion cases, both internationally and in South Africa, the perpetrator of this kind of horrific crime typically disappears into obscurity," said Pick 'n Pay chief executive Sean Summers in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

Summers said blood tests on the three customers who had been found to be poisoned by cyanide planted in products sold at three Pick 'n Pay branches now showed that two of the customers' blood cyanide levels were "normal".

The results from blood tests taken from a nine-year-old child who ate poisoned chips bought at Pick 'n Pay's Kensington outlet were still outstanding.

Pick 'n Pay had hoped to have the child's latest blood test results by Thursday, but this had not happened, a spokesperson said.

Summers said two products had been poisoned, although four had been threatened. The two were No Name Portuguese Sardines, 120g, and the Fritos barbeque-flavoured strip pack of four packets.

Only stores in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal had been targeted.

Summers said this type of criminal often faded into obscurity "once they have achieved their goal of damaging the company or because they realise that public awareness, outrage and the threat of apprehension through a reward, with a possible life sentence, does not make this worth pursuing."

He said Pick 'n Pay were working with a police task team investigating the crime.

Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Selby Bokaba said the police were "satisfied with the process made in the investigation, and there has been progress."

He did not want to elaborate.

- SAPA