EDITORIAL : Let’s be careful about who we help

CASES of Good Samaritans getting robbed after offering stranded pedestrians transport continue to rise with each passing day.

A number of motorists have lost their valuables, including cars, af-ter offering transport to robbers.

Some of the motorists are hired by the same people who end up robbing them along the way.

Motorists should offer strangers transport at their own risk as a lot of people can no longer be trusted.

A number of registered taxi operators have been on the receiving end as well.

It’s an issue which should never be taken lightly.

What makes this issue complex is the fact that it is hard to detect whether the passenger is honest or not.

In yesterday’s issue of this newspaper, we ran a story about a mo-torist who was robbed of his car by a passenger he had offered transport on their way to Domboshava.

In the spirit of helping a brother, the motorist lost his vehicle at gun point to a man he had offered the ride.

The Good Samaritan, who came across the stranded man flagging cars by the roadside, is now regretting ever offering the man transport.

The matter has since spilled to the courts where the victim is now looking for justice.

The only relief the man enjoys now is the fact that he has recovered his vehicle.

However, the Good Samaritan deserves compensation for the loss of business he encountered.

He also needs counselling to overcome the trauma he encoun-tered when the rogue passenger threatened to take away his life at gunpoint.

The good thing that he did was not to resist the orders of the armed robber.

Resistance could have cost him a lot as such heartless robbers don’t respect the sanctity of life.

There are a number of notorious armed robbers who are currently on the loose.

Many of them have mastered the deception of appearing like in-nocent people in need of help.

As such, we should never trust strangers by offering them transport.

Some of these people are now working in syndicates, which makes it hard to detect whether they are robbers or not.

The most daring ones work in cahoots with women and this de-ceives many drivers who then feel it’s fine to assist them.

There are even some daring robbers who pose as people who are going to church.

With the number of armed robberies on the increase, we should always be careful of the people that we offer help to.

Some of these people, who appear to be innocent, are the worst crooks.

We should offer transport to the people we know and trust.

Failure to do so has led to some of the motorists getting robbed as was the case with the Domboshava man.

He was only helping a brother but his move backfired when he was robbed at gunpoint.

We have seen this movie play out again and again but it appears there is no end to this and many motorists will still fall prey.