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Crime Reporter
A FOREIGN currency trader was robbed by an unknown dealer and passengers taking lifts from strangers have between them lost more than US$10 000 to armed robbers in and around Harare.
The foreign currency dealer was lured to Harare from Rusape, before being robbed at gunpoint while the other victims were robbed after being offered and accepting lifts from total strangers.
Police are now hunting down the suspects.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said police in Harare were investigating the robbery on Friday at the corner of Samora Machel Avenue and Sixth Street, where a man aged 27 lost US$3 200 cash to an unknown forex dealer he had met on a WhatsApp group.
“The complainant had travelled from Rusape and was lured into a silver Honda Fit Vehicle (registration number not captured) before the suspect produced an unidentified pistol and stole the money,” he said.
In the first robbery of a passenger who accepted a lift from strangers, the complainant lost US$3 360 to six suspects who had offered him a lift in a Toyota Wish from central Harare to Dzivarasekwa on Monday last week.
Similarly, an investigation has been launched into another robbery case in which a Harare man was robbed of US$3 660 cash and a cellphone by four suspects who had offered him a lift.
The suspects were travelling in a blue Toyota Wish from Westgate to Harare city centre also on Monday. The suspects later diverted to Mazowe.
Police recently launched an operation targeting pirate taxis, mostly unregistered Toyota Wish, Honda Fit and Toyota Vitz vehicles following an increase in armed robbery and rapes countrywide.
Awareness campaigns are also being undertaken, urging people to desist from boarding pirate taxis to avoid robberies, killings and rapes.
Asst Comm Nyathi said they were concerned about the increase in robberies and rapes involving pirate taxis countrywide.
A 23-year-old Harare woman was robbed of US$6 and raped by two of the three armed robbers who had offered her a lift in the Greencroft area, before she was dumped along Westwood Road in Kambuzuma.
The robbers, including a woman, were travelling in an unregistered Toyota Wish when they offered the victim a lift to the city centre around 2pm. It is alleged that along the way, one of the robbers suddenly grabbed her neck before blindfolding her with a cloth.
Police said the robbers then searched her and took away the US$6 and a Techno cellphone before taking turns to rape her while blindfolded.
The robbers then dumped her in Kambuzuma and disappeared.
Recently, two Harare women were robbed and raped in separate incidents after being offered lifts by armed robbers in unregistered Toyota Wishes.
Another Harare man was also robbed by robbers using a Toyota Wish last week and there are reports that robbery gangs offering lifts are active in Harare.
A 24-year-old man was robbed of a cellphone and cash, all valued at US$487, after boarding a silver Toyota Wish at Newlands roundabout.
On the same day at around noon, a woman aged 21 was raped and robbed of US$70, $320 and other valuables after boarding an unregistered silver Toyota Wish along Chiremba Road in Hatfield.
The next day at around 11.45am, another woman aged 23 was raped after boarding an unregistered white Toyota Wish with two men aboard near Mufakose High 1 on her way to Budiriro.
Online Reporter