Linden Police Station’s Alex Vermaak has called on the community to be more vigilant when using a mobile device.
His warning comes after a second video on social media popped up showing a man once again stealing a cellphone in a restaurant from a customer who was not paying attention.
https://www.facebook.com/IntelligenceBureauSA/videos/1977365715610273/
The customer is seated at the restaurant and on his cellphone when the suspect, also on his phone, starts walking toward him.
The suspect then walks behind the customer and suddenly grabs the cellphone and runs away. The customer gives chase, but it is not clear what happens after that.
“I have seen the video on social media. People tend to forget about their surroundings and are more interested in their phone. We are asking the community to always be cognisant of what is around them because criminals are always watching,” said Vermaak.
The first video on social media shows a similar-looking suspect who also sneaks up on a customer sitting at a local restaurant and steals their cellphone.
“From the videos, it looks to be the same suspect using this method and police will work hard to arrest him as soon as possible,” Vermaak added.
https://www.facebook.com/IntelligenceBureauSA/videos/1978362685510576/
In the video, the robbery appears to have occurred at the Randburg RocoMamas, however, the owner, Brian Altriche claims the incident didn’t occur at his branch.
“The incident occurred within the common area of the shopping centre and not within RocoMamas restaurant.
We are not aware of any similar incidents of late, but the landlord now keeps the gate locked to eliminate any possible future incidents such as this,” he said.
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