Fourways Mall security officer saves handbag
A 70-year-old woman, Priscilla Dunlop, accidentally left her brown handbag containing her ID, money, and valuables at Fourways Mall. Fortunately, Fidelity security officer Phumudzo Netshitomboni noticed the bag and ran after her to return it.
Priscilla Dunlop could have lost everything she holds valuable in her brown handbag, but, thanks to Phumudzo Netshitomboni, that wasn’t the case.
Netshitomboni, a Fidelity security officer at Fourways Mall, sprang into action when he noticed that Dunlop had forgotten her, now famous, brown handbag in a trolley, after she bought groceries.
The bag, which held not just her valuables but also her sense of security, was about to be left behind, but Netshitomboni’s quick thinking, and dedication to his job, ensured that it was returned.
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“I am still shocked,” said Dunlop. “I don’t know how I forgot it, but it was dark in the parking lot and it is brown in colour, so, as I was busy loading my items in the car, it was left behind. You know I am aged 70, so such things happen.”
She said she was heading home, to Douglasdale, when the incident occurred. It’s a moment that many of us can relate to: We’re in a rush, our minds are preoccupied, and before we know it, we’ve left something important behind, but Dunlop was about to experience the kindness of a stranger, or rather, the diligence of a security officer who refused to let her lose her valuables.
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“He came running to me,” she said, “as I was busy driving, and then I thought: ‘Let me just wait and hear what he has to say’, only to realise he had my handbag. That was very kind of him because that bag had everything in it.”
Netshitomboni said, when he went back to his place in Diepsloot, to tell his friend what happened, he realised that his act of kindness got him trending on social media, after Dunlop told her award-winning, singer sister PJ Powers about the ordeal.
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“[My friend] laughed and said I am dumb. He knew my financial status and thought I could’ve made easy cash, but that is not me at all. My landlord has been kind to me, because there are months were I am not able to pay rent, and when I tell him he understands, so, I had to be kind to others, just as much. I literally did not have anything, but I did not even think about that when I took the bag back to its owner.”
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