Mobile phone thieves nabbed

Liberty Dube
TWO Chikanga women were on Tuesday arrested after conniving to steal a Samsung cellphone which belonged to Steven Mandala, thanks to a Closed Circuit Television footage which recorded one of them doing the act.

Tatenda Mafuta (26) and Portia Muuduri (28) admitted to having committed the crime at Easy Traders Grocery shop, located in the city at around 10am.

Police urged members of the public to desist from stealing or risk being jailed.

“Mafuta came into the shop and asked for some vanishing cream. She went away without buying anything.

“I had left my phone on the charger. I later came back and realised that my phone was gone. Luckily we have CCTV footage and it helped me to recognise the thief. I took one police officer at Mutare Rural Station who accompanied me in the search.

“We looked for her from one shop to another and later met her. She initially denied stealing my phone before we took her and showed her the CCTV footage. She admitted,” said Mandala.

Mafuta was no longer in possession of the phone when she was apprehended. She had given it to her partner in crime, one Muuduri, who had already left town for Natview Park where the phone was recovered.

Inside Mafuta’s phone was a strange concoction of dried leaves packed in a small plastic bag and stashed in her bag.

“Muteuro wangu. One Madzibaba gave it to me. We started stealing today. We regret why we did it. We will never do it again,” said the humiliated Mafuta.