Placido Hilukilwa
THE Namibian Police, have on several occasions, warned members of the public to stop withdrawing huge amounts of money from their bank accounts and then carrying such money without taking necessary precautionary measures, but the repeated warnings appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Incidents of money being stolen or people being robbed moments after withdrawing money from the bank, continue to pile up.
The latest incident occurred at Ongwediva in the Oshana Region on Tuesday afternoon when an unknown suspect used an unknown object to smash the window of a stationary vehicle and grabbed the 57-year-old vehicle owner’s handbag containing N$21 700 which she withdrew from her commercial bank account moments earlier.
According to NamPol’s Inspector Thomas Aiyambo, the suspect drove away in a white Toyota Rav 4 without number plates.
“People must stop withdrawing huge amounts of money and place or carry the cash in handbags,” said Aiyambo.
None of the money has been recovered and the police have yet to arrest the suspect.
Incidents of this nature have become common in recent years.
The police, as well as members of the public, are suspecting that criminals have developed a modus operandi of discreetly infiltrating bank queues or loitering at banks to identify people who withdraw large amounts of cash.
Some are even suspecting that the criminals have bank employees as collaborators.
