Phoney furniture delivery men swipe TVs
Opportunistic thieves in Belhar are stealing people’s televisions by pretending to be delivery staff at a well-known furniture store.
|||Opportunistic thieves in Belhar are stealing people’s televisions by pretending to be delivery staff at a well-known furniture store.
The con artists ask residents to help guard their bakkie “which is loaded with furniture”, but this is just a ruse to lure people out of their homes so they can pounce.
Extension 13 Ward Councillor Willie Jaftha is now urging residents to be careful about who they let into their homes.
“We have had incidents in Adam Tas Street and in Leeukop in Belhar, that is why we need to warn people,” he says.
The latest victims are Gail Solomons, 52, and her son Sayed Groenewald, 32, whose plasma TV was stolen on Monday.
Sayed says four coloured men arrived at their home in Adam Tas Street in two white VW Polo vehicles.
“My mother and her boyfriend were watching 7de Laan and the television stands on top of the dining room table,” he says.
“They came to the door and said they work for [the furniture store].”
The men asked the boyfriend to help guard their bakkie.
“They said the bakkie was standing around the corner and that it had a lot of furniture on it...”
Sayed says one of the men unplugged the TV in front of his mother, and even took the remote control, but left the aerial behind.
Gail soon realised she had been tricked and ran after the men as they drove away:
Sayed adds: “My mother was so shocked. I don’t know what they said to her when they took the television.”
Their neighbour, Patricia Baadjies, says the men tried their luck with her first.
She says her kids, who were playing outside, brought the men into her house.
“They walked right to my bedroom and didn’t even stand and wait at the front door,” she says.
One of the men asked her to walk with him to Haarlem Street to help guard their bakkie.
“But I immediately knew something wasn’t right and called my brother to go with him. But they went next door instead,” says Patricia.
Ward Councillor Willie Jaftha says he became aware of the scam last week.
“I do not want my people to be robbed of their hard-earned money,” he says.
Daily Voice