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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
POLICE in Bulawayo have arrested nine suspects, four of them taxi drivers and recovered goods valued at over $300 000 stolen from a number of households in the city.
Tawanda Gumbomunda (23), a part time gardener; Prince Ncube (19); Ben Sibanda (23); Qinisani Tshuma (25) and Sydney Yona (19) who are all unemployed as well as four taxi drivers, Stand Njunu (32), Melusi Ncube (28), Qhubekani Mpofu (33) Gabriel Prince Ncube (26) were arrested from last Friday to yesterday.
It is alleged that Gumbomunda monitored some homes before alerting his accomplices that the owners were away.
Beds, plasma television sets, refrigerators, decoders, DVD players, microwaves among others were stolen between July and last month.
Bulawayo acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nomalanga Msebele said police have recovered property worth $315 000.
“We have arrested nine suspects in connection with a series of break-in and theft cases targeting residential homes. The suspects in this case are a gardener who was working with four others to raid homes mainly in the eastern parts of the city. Some of the houses they raided are in Suburbs, Morningside, Kumalo among other suburbs.
“The suspects also worked with taxi drivers whom they hired to carry their stolen loot. In one of the incidents, while they were offloading the stolen property at a house in Cowdray Park suburb, the taxi driver they had hired sped off with the items that were still in the car and headed to the city centre,” said Ass Insp Msebele.
She said upon arriving in the central business district, the driver alerted his colleagues about his trip and the property that was still in his car.
Asst Insp Msebele said the drivers connived to share the loot instead of reporting the case to the police.
“Hence, one of the drivers has been charged with theft while his accomplices have been charged with receiving stolen property. We therefore want to appeal to taxi drivers to desist from partaking in criminal activities as cases would lead back to them. We have since impounded two vehicles in connection with the incidents. One of the taxi drivers was allegedly hired more than once to carry the looted properties,” said Asst Insp Msebele.
She said some of the stolen property was recovered at a house in Cowdray Park where some of the suspects were staying.
Asst Insp Msebele said police were still conducting further investigations on the matter.
“However, we want to appeal to members of the public to notify their neighbours whenever they intend to travel so that the neighbours can look after their properties and report unusual movements.
“We also want to encourage travelling residents to take advantage of the police’s House Under Supervision Scheme which we offer freely. In this scheme, travelling residents notify police of their intentions to travel so that cops could conduct surveillance works in their absence,” said Asst Insp Msebele.
She said residents should conduct background checks on domestic workers they employ so that they do not hire criminals. – @nqotshili
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