Motorcycle syndicate: Desperate victim scammed
Went with friend to find bike.
The sadness in 34-year-old Jollie Phiri’s voice was audible when she phoned the Record the day after her motorcycle was stolen on 19 September.
Phiri said she was an avid rider and even joined a club before her Regal Raptor Daytona was stolen. This past weekend though insult was added to injury when a man phoned her, saying he stores stolen motorcycles for a syndicate before they are transported across the border to Mozambique. He said he charges the syndicate R4 000 to store the motorcycle but if she paid him 40 per cent of the amount, he would tell her where her motorcycle was and she could get it back. He demanded an up-front payment of R400, which Phiri paid. On Friday she was given an address in Laudium. Thinking this could be a breakthrough, she excitedly phoned the investigating officer working on her case numerous times but could not get hold of him. She then tried Crime Line but they also told her they could not help her.
She then decided to take the matter into her own hands and drove to Laudium Police Station with a friend where she was told once again they could not help her. After driving around for a while they finally found the address only to discover that it was a block of flats. When they tried to phone the man who said he stores the motorcycles his phone was switched off.
Phiri said that no one could see from the street that she owned a motorcycle and that she is the only person in her complex who owed one. A few days before the motorcycle was stolen a crew of Mozambican nationals were painting at the complex. Phiri said she now wonders, in the light of the syndicate taking the motorcycles to Mozambique, whether the painters did not tip off the syndicate.
“And how did the man who scammed me know my motorcycle had been stolen?” she asked.
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