MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – Despite very costly damage to their store, the personnel a local MTN-agency in the Akoo Centre could not help having a laugh at the expense of the would-be crooks who broke into their shop last week.

According to Ms Maryke de Bruin from Aqua Cell, they were alerted about the break-in at the store just after midnight on Friday, July 1, by their security company, Scorpion Patrol.

It would seem that the burglars though it a quiet enough time to clean out the store. They gained access to the store by throwing a huge concrete block through a front window and, amidst the deafening siren alarm proceeded to use the same concrete block to smash a counter in which several cell phones were on display. They quickly emptied out the display case and disappeared into the darkness of the night from which they came.

But in the end it was a case of dummy criminals only getting away with dummy cell phones.

“All the phones in the display case were mere replicas,” Ms De Bruin said. The criminals had made off with useless pieces of plastic worth a mere R10 or R20 each. Should they have taken the time, they would have seen the box of real phones on the floor, as well as the personnel’s business phones on the counter. Luckily, none of these was taken as time was obviously not on their side.

Ms De Bruin this week said that the police suspect children to be the culprits in this case. She did, however, also add that the police informed them that a syndicate is currently targeting cell phone shops in the area. Although the burglars botched their attempt on Friday, Ms De Bruin said she was fearful that they might return. Nonetheless, she had high praise for the personnel of Scorpion Patrol for their swift response and the posting of two guards at the store until dawn the next day.