Warnings

A warning to all Wedding service providers.  A guy calling himself Howard – cell number 073 715 5627 – is taking the time to meet with photographers and caterers etc pretending (very convincingly) to be planning his wedding.  During the meeting he takes a call from his 'doctor' who needs him to immediately bring across town a sum of money (in our cases $179.00) for his son's urgent blood transfusion, which of course he doesn't have on him.  Send him on his way!

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Please inform readers that guys are going around poisoning dogs again in the Avondale area.Our two little dogs were poisoned last night, they were obviously trying to get our electric gate motor as the gate was de railed, but they could not get in.  Please all just be aware that these callous people are around. 

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Hi Mike, Just to warn the public to beware of a “policeman” con-man and three other plain-clothes men travelling in a dark blue taxi.

On Wednesday 30^th May, around 11am, I was travelling on Quorn Road from Arundel Spar, turning right into Welch Avenue.  Whilst waiting for oncoming traffic my phone rang and I answered ( naughty).  I noticed a taxi had pulled alongside me, extremely close, so I looked at the driver to see what the problem was.  A “policeman” in the passenger-side pointed at me and shouted Pull Over, Pull Over.  I turned into Welch Road and stopped.  Within a second a “policeman” in full police uniform jumped into the passenger seat and two others, in civilian clothes, jumped into the back-seat of my car ..... they interrogated me for 20 – 25 mins demanding US$300 – which I did not have.  They would not let me make any phone-calls and wanted me to drive to the bank and withdraw the money, but I said there was no money in our account.  They demanded to see what I had in my purse – I only had R100 and two US$1 notes!  They were not happy and kept saying you must have more.   After telling them I had a meeting with someone in that road at 11am and they will be concerned that I am late, they became nervous and said “give us that money and drop us off  in the next road”, being Bowood Road (which I later learned from a vendor, that witnessed the whole incident, that is where the driver of the taxi went after the other three jumped out -  and into my car.  

After dropping them off, I went to my friends’ house in Welch Avenue, that I was supposed to meet at 11am,  and tried to phone the hotline no I had - 0772 852 305 - but it kept saying “user busy”.   Then my friend gave me a number to phone – Chief Superintendent Magwendi – 0712 322 709.  He was very helpful and said he would send some police details to follow-up on the incident today, Thursday.   He mentioned that they have had several similar incidents and that this group seem to be targeting white woman ..... although, I know of a white male that had the same experience about 3 weeks ago with a “policeman” and three others in civilian clothes, in a dark blue taxi, demanding US$1000! 

I was lucky – I got off lightly.   Please keep your doors locked whilst driving. 

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^{Selbourne Park, Bulawayo – Monday 28th May – 3.10pm}

^{I Received A Phone Call From A Lady In Complete Panic That There Was A Man In Her Friends Home With A Gun And The Accomplice Had A Machette, Whilst On The Phone To Her I Called The Crack Team And Gave Them Directions To The House In Selbourne Park As The Young Lady Did Not Know The Address, I Waited Ten Minutes Then Called Back To Hear A Very Relieved Young Lady On The Other Side Of The Phone Informing Me That The Crack Team Had Successfully Arrested Both Criminals.  The Gardner Used His Initiative And Saw The Two Jump Into His Property And Hid, He Calmly Ignored Their Presence And It Appears He Called Another Gardner To Come And Assist Him, Meanwhile The Maid Was In The House With The Dogs, The Gardner And His Friend Came Back And Seeing That One Of The Two Had Entered The Main House He Locked The Door, Then The Two Went And Panel Beated The Second Criminal Who Was Still Hiding In The Garden With All The Loot Taken From The Neighbours House, I Can Confirm That There Was No Firearm Or Machette, However The Criminals Were Arrested And Have Been Taken To C.I.D. Hillside For Further Investigations, All The Property From The Neighbour Was Recovered And I Am Hoping That These Two Will Hopefully Be Linked To The Unlawful Entries In Suburbs – Will Keep You Updated, Thank You To C.I.D. Homicide Crack Team For A Swift Response As Usual And A Positive Outcome Of 2 Arrests.} 

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I would like to add that at our flat complex in Avondale West, we have had a 3 or 4 instances where 3 young, fit guys have just walked into the complex, 2 of them walking around and into flats that they were able too, ours being one of them (I might add that we were in the flat in a different room and did not hear them), and the 3^rd acting as a look out.  The 2 young guys took a GPS, and envelope (which they thought contained cash – but only had a bunch of receipts instead) and a wallet from the lounge area of our flat.  One of the ladies in the complex was walking around the complex looking for her cat, we are guessing the look out guy phoned the 2 in our flat, as she saw them come out, but did not think anything of it – as they looked the same age as my son (late teens) and looked well built so she assumed they were friends of my son’s.  Since then they have been seen in our complex 3 times, but being as cunning as they are, we have had no joy in catching them – they are very fast and switched on, on the later sightings it’s been thought that they have had a ‘getaway’ car waiting.  I would give details, but it seems to change. 

I would like to add that we reported the robbery, from our flat, even though we knew the police could not do much, except take a report (we also needed a police report number to replace my son’s drivers licence).  They were very helpful, both with us and when our chairman of the complex reported the last 3 incidents and have given us numbers that we can contact if we see them in our complex again.