Peter Sorepo, a representative for security services at the Zone in Rosebank, and Sergeant Bongi Mdletshe from the Rosebank Police Station discussed general trends in petty theft commonly experienced in crowded commercial areas.
Increased foot traffic in malls provides for greater opportunity for attentive thieves to target unsuspecting and otherwise distracted shoppers.
They wanted members of the public to be vigilant when withdrawing from the ATM. Sorepo cited incidents where people were accosted by well-dressed strangers masquerading as staff employed at the shops or at the bank pretending to offer them assistance.
It is also advisable that the keypad of the ATM is inspected, to ensure there is no added layer on the keypad that is used to copy pin codes and clone bank cards.
Shoppers are reminded to be attentive about where they leave their bags when sitting down at a restaurant, and similarly where they place their phones when busy with transactions at the tills and counters.
Sergeant Mdletshe also made mention of a small con employed by cell phone thieves, when a seemingly well-meaning stranger would approach a person requesting to make a call off their phone. The thief would then walk away and disappear into the crowd with the “borrowed” cell phone.
