Acquaintances, relatives behind robberies- Police

Harare (New Ziana)-Relatives, acquaintances and employees are behind the recent surge in armed robberies in the country, police said on Thursday.
The robbers have been targeting cash in transit vehicles, individuals and business people with large sums of money.
Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told New Ziana that ongoing investigations were revealing that the armed robbers are being tipped off about the existence of large sums of cash by someone close to the victims.
On cash in transit robberies, Assistant Commissioner Nyathi said, police investigations have shown that most of them were inside jobs.
“I think there are several factors but we can see that people are keeping large amounts of cash at home and business premises. Most of these high profile armed robbery cases, we have established that information is leaking on existence of cash.
“Victims are being followed from work by people who would have monitored them for some time.
“For instance the Hatfield case (where a Harare businessman lost USD45 000 cash to armed robbers who being attacked him at the intersection of Glenara and Chiremba roads) and the Fawcett cash-in transit case is actually security guards who would have planned on executing a robbery. So a number of issues are involved,” he said.
To their credit, police are apprehending most of the suspects linked to the robberies.
“Arrests are being effected,” said Assistant Commissioner Nyathi.
Ass Comm Nyathi warned the public against sharing information on their finances.
“People should not lose their guard but remain alert. For those in business, monetary transactions should not be a preserve of every employee. They should also not share information on how they store their money with workers,” he said.
New Ziana