Pretend parent struck at homeschooling centre first
The phony parent has been busy conning local schools and nursery schools since March.
Another school came forward saying that they were also robbed by the phony parent pretending to want to enroll his child in the school.
This follows after, it is believed, the same man stole a cellphone at a creche earlier this week.
Read here: CCTV: Pretend parent robs nursery school
Annelien Debuys’ cell phone, along with two others were also stolen. Debuys’ son attends the Think Rite Homeschooling Tutor Centre in Monument.
The well-dressed pretend parent visited the center where he queried about enrolling his ‘son’ with school principle, Billene Oosthuizen.
“This man was really well-dressed, well-spoken and well-groomed, that is why I thought nothing strange of him.”
After break-time on the day, two students noticed that their cell phones had disappeared from their desks and the phony parent was also nowhere to be seen.
Watch the CCTV footage here:
“He really seemed very interested at first and asked all the right questions. But by the time I started printing out all the documentation, he started to lose interest. At some point he asked to have another look at the facility and shortly after we noticed the phones were missing.”
A total of three cell phones were stolen on the day, one of which is a Samsung Galaxy A3.
It seems the ‘pretend parent’ is currently targeting schools in the area and focusing on nabbing smartphones which can easily fit into his pockets.
Debuys told the News that her son and his class mates usually leave their phones and gadgets on their desks during break-time because it is a small group of students.
Oosthuizen also mentioned they were targeted a year ago in the same manner, but could not confirm if the two incidents at her center were linked to the same ‘pretend parent’.
However then man in the footage captured by the CCTV cameras of the nursery school looked somewhat familiar to her.
“We must be more vigilant. The worst of all is he pretends to be a parent and all I wanted to do was help him,” she concluded.
Related articles:
• [CCTV] Bogus customer steals cellphone
• [CCTV] Bakkie stolen in broad daylight
• CCTV footage shows beggars stealing
