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Mmeli Nyoni
CATCH me if you can!
A crafty hospital thief whose modus operandi had been to fake an illness, then get admitted at referral hospitals before going on to steal from other patients and nursing staff was finally nabbed at St Lukea��s Hospital in Lupane.
The daring thief identified as Norman Chiremba went to St Lukea��s hospital under the pretext that he had been attacked by thieves. He lied that they took away all his belongings and hurt him on his stomach where he once had an operation.
The hospital personnel attending to him assumed that he was experiencing abdominal pain due to the attack.
A member of the nursing staff told B-Metro how the smooth operator went about his thieving enterprise before he was nabbed.
a�?When he checked in he claimed to have been coming from Victoria Falls and that his car had broken down so he was left for dead by attackers while trying to get help,a�? the nurse said.
For the nursing staff to take him in, he lied that he got to the hospital through the assistance of a Good Samaritan.
Unfortunately, one of the nurses identified him as a thief that once stole her phone two years ago at the same hospital.
a�?I was attending to him when I remembered his face from two years ago when heA� checked in with the same storyline but different name. He stole my phone at the time,a�? revealed the nurse.
Two years ago, the nurse said, Chiremba used the name Inheritance Chiridza. She vividly remembers his class act.
a�?When he got here in 2014, it was as if he was going to die but he didna��t have a scratch to show for it but an operation scar.A� After a day he asked to use my phone to contact his family and workplace. He claimed to beA� a soldier stationed in Hwange,a�? she added.
The nurse added that she is not the only one fooled by the conman.
a�?He went to another nurse and said my phone gave him problems so he needed another phone to use. While we were attending to other patients, he fled with our phones,a�? she said.
Come 2016, it was his bad day in the office as the nurse who remembered him called hospital security and he was cuffed to his hospital bed.
After his arrest, word spread and another nurse from Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo identified him as the guy who also cleaned her off her belongings.
a�?I remembered him from Mpilo where he checked himself in, telling the same story. I took him to CasualtyA� Ward for his treatment because we all feared the attack might have triggered abdominal pains. He asked for phones from almost everyone and he ended up with six phones which he got away with,a�? she said.
Superintendent Constance Siwela said she could not confirm the arrest, stating that she was in Jotsholo and had not received the information by time of going to press. .
Online Reporter