On Thursday January 28, 2016, the police say they responded to a report of an alleged armed robbery that was committed on the driver and porter of a business company involved in the sale of confectionery and snack foods at about 1840h. on the same day at Harlem, WCD.
The driver and porter, the police say, reported that they were travelling in their Canter truck when they were forced off the road by a motor car. Two men armed with firearms came out of the car and held them up and took away $1.2M, a laptop computer and their two cell phones and escaped after locking them in the rear of the canter vehicle. They were later rescued by passersby who heard them knocking on the walls of the vehicle.
However, under questioning by the police the two ‘victims’ admitted that they had staged the robbery with the involvement of three other men who were given the money and cell phones after pretending to be carrying out the robbery.
One of the ‘bandits’ was subsequently arrested, and a part of the stolen cash and the two cell phones were recovered. The laptop computer was also recovered in the vicinity of the staged robbery, the police say.
The three men are in police custody assisting with the investigations.