A new kind of robbery is taking Thohoyandoyu town by storm. The latest victim is a self-employed hawker and mother of two, Matodzi Mukhumo (31) from Maungani near Thohoyandou, who was robbed of her cell phone, a Motorolla C139, on Tuesday last week.

Mukhumo, who sells fruits and vegetables, said a sweet-tongued robber came to her stall with a well-wrapped cardboard box, and told her to keep that box because his wife was on her way to come and collect it. She said she asked the man what he carried and he told her that the cardboard box contained some groceries, which he had bought from shops within the Thohoyandou complex. "He bought two loose cigarettes from me and I trusted him. He asked my cell phone, on the pretence that he wanted to make a call back to his wife and I quickly gave it to him because he usually comes to my stall to buy cigarettes. I did not suspect anything from him, although I don’t know his name – that is why I did not hesitate to give him my cell phone. When I was busy helping another customer, the man disappeared and left his box there."

Matodzi says she became suspicious when she looked around and found that the man was nowhere to be seen. "After an hour, I decided to unwrap and open the parcel but I was surprised to see two heavy ordinary stones inside of the box. That was when I realized that I had been robbed."

* Last year, a pensioner was lured by three young men to buy a stone inside a cardboard box, which was supposed to have contained a radio, in Thohoyandou. The pensioner paid them R80 and they vanished. When she opened the box, she found that there was a stone inside!

Police spokesperson Supt Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said it is painful that people are easily robbed of their hard-earned belongings by thugs. He said Mukhumo had not yet registered a case with the police but he advised her to do so, so that the police could start with their own investigations. Mushavhanamadi further advised people to keep their cell phone slips and EMI number so that their phones could be traced easily in the event of theft or robbery.