WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-21 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By Alex Eliseev
The Bible is pretty clear on “Thou shall not steal”. But a gang of robbers parading as preachers are not exactly practising what they preach.
The group is working across Joburg’s northern suburbs, and one police station has even started putting up warning signs on the streets.
Victims are either conned out of thousands of rands – the highest so far is reportedly R30 000 – while others are robbed. In one case, a woman closed her eyes to pray with the bogus preachers and suddenly blanked out. When she came to, there were no miracles as promised – only a missing cellphone, wallet and jewellery.
Fairland police station commissioner Superintendent Koena Moichela said the preacher gang consisted of three or four men and sometimes a woman.
Detectives at another station suspect there are just two conmen, with one playing the role of a preacher and the other of a security guard. The “preacher” is said to have a row of skew upper teeth.
The thieves dress in smart clothes and select their victims carefully. So far, all victims have been women and most were approached in and around banks.
The robbers spy on the women to see if they are withdrawing money. Sometimes they know exactly how much and whether the victim is worth the show they put on. Then they strike.
“They pretend to be prophets,” Moichela explained.
“They say they have the wisdom to give people great fortunes.”
The preachers don’t name specific faiths, but ask to accompany their target home to pray. If the woman falls for their divine intervention, she is told that their prayers will bring her good luck and double her fortune. Sometimes they claim to work with muti.
In some of the cases, women have withdrawn money and handed it straight over to the smooth-talking conmen.
Moichela said the gang was operating around the city and their station was just one that had received complaints. The cluster to which Fairland belongs – including Randburg and Linden stations – is working to catch the preachers. “We are all on alert,” he said. “We’re trying to be proactive.”
Linden police station’s Inspector Bokkie Keulder confirmed they were investigating the spree, and that the Randburg station also had cases.
The Fairland station’s community policing forum chairperson, Gulam Karim, said the scam follows similar ones where criminals tried to evoke sympathy from their victims.
In the past they would pretend to raise money for the blind, sometimes using fake police letterheads.
Anyone with information that may assist the police should call their local station.