Gang poses as farm field workers for three hours t...

Gang poses as farm field workers for three hours then robs Koala of US$30 Thousand

Koala Park Abattoir General Manager Darrell Mills

Zim Now Writer

An organised, collected and well-choreographed armed robber gang of eight got away with US$30 thousand from Koala Park Abattoir on Tuesday morning after spending the morning pretending to be farm workers.

“I can confirm that such a case has been reported. In addition to the US$30 thousand, the robbers also got away with mobile phone handsets belonging to employees,” National Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told Zim Now. He also added that investigations are in progress.

According to reports from a well-placed source, around 7:00am a gang of six was dropped off by an Isuzu vehicle on the company’s wheat field, situated some 200m from the administration block.

“They were dressed in orange work suits and purported to the irrigation foreman to be members of a surveillance team from Net One to give them a legitimate reason to get to the field,” said the source.

The Koala workers did not suspect anything and were easily placed under control by the gang members who were in possession of an unknown number of pistols.

The robbers tied up the Koala employees using an assortment of shoelaces, handcuffs, tyre cables. The workers were then instructed to lie down and covered with polythene sheets.

The armed robbers then stayed in the field, apparently pretending to be the legitimate workers.

At approximately 10:00 am, the irrigation manager, Mr Bradely, took tea for his staff. The waiting robbers subdued him and handcuffed him. They ordered him to call the general manager Mr Darrell Mills to entice him to the field.

Mr Mills in turn, was forced to call a subordinate with instructions to bring US$30 000 cash.

With the cash safely in hand, the robbers ordered Koala employees into a vehicle used by one of the managers to access the wheat field. The robbers also got also got on board then drove off.

The vehicle developed a fault along Airport Road and the robbers ditched it with the employees. The robbers got into an unmarked vehicle and disappeared.

A report was made at Hatfield Police Station. Police are investigating as confirmed by Senior Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.

Armed robberies are becoming a cause for concern in the country. On the same day as the Koala heist, another well organised five-man gang robbed a bank in Bulawayo and got away with US$70 thousand with some bystanders having no idea that they had been present during a stick up.

Police records show that armed robberies from January to October 2021 netted over 5 million dollars with several high profile cases involving private security company guards. One international remittance agency was targeted several times at different branches spread across the country.

The Presidential Firearms Amnesty running until the end of this month has so far netted some 400 guns which are just about 0.1 percent of the estimated 264 315 illegal arms in the country.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/327/armed-robbery-cases-likely-to-remain-high-as-01-percent-of-illegal-arms-surrendered-in-amnesty-so-far

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have managed to apprehend a number of suspects in the high profile cases. At the beginning of this month they arrested five members of the nine-man gang that robbed a Mukuru outlet in Gokwe. ZRP officers also arrested 11 out of 12 members of a gang suspected to have been behind a spate of robberies in Mashonaland West.