Police warn pensioners to be aware when picking up pension payouts as it was reported to the station that men posing as police officials are taking pensioners’ monthly grants.
Sergeant Deidre Solomon, spokesperson of Kirstenhof police, says the suspects normally work in a group of three.
“One suspect would pretend to pick up a money bag containing money in front of the pensioner and agree to share what he has found.
“The victim is then lured to a secure place with the intention to receive half of the money that the suspect found,” she says.
Solomon explains that they are then approached by another two men pretending to be police officials. They then inform the two that a place was robbed nearby and that they must hand over all their money to make sure that it is not the money that was stolen.
After handover“After handing over all the money the pensioner is then distracted for a minute and then gets handed back a brown envelope and told to open the envelope once they have left. Once they are gone the envelope is opened and inside is cut up newspaper strips,” she says.
Solomon says by the time the pensioner realises that there is no money in the envelope the suspects have fled the scene.
“Pensioners must be aware that police officials do not take money and that if they are approached they should rather tell them that they should proceed to the nearest police station to sort the matter out or move to the shopping centres security so that the police officials identity can be verified,” she says.
Meanwhile, police conducted searches at well-known drug houses, which resulted in 12 arrests being made in the past week in Kirstenhof.
Drugs confiscatedSolomon says a total amount of 5kg of dagga, 275g tik and 261 mandrax tablets were confiscated.
The suspects all appeared in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on drug-related cases.
Anyone with information on crime can call the police at 10111 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111. All information will be treated as highly confidential
