MBOMBELA – It was an ordinary night when Mr Lennie Poonan decided to do a last-minute run to the store around the corner. It turned out very differently than the planned 10-minute trip for basic food.
Last Tuesday Poonan dropped by Westend Shopping Centre, leaving home at about 20:30 and arriving at the centre about five minutes later. He had his laptop on the passenger seat next to him and put it on the floor to hide it from view. Poonan then popped into the store for a quick shop he estimated would take another five minutes.
He returned to his vehicle and unlocked the car to put the two shopping bags on the front passenger seat since it was closest to the curb when he returned from the SUPERSPAR. Poonan closed the door and walked around the back of the vehicle to get to the driver’s side. Behind his car was a young man who Poonan had noticed earlier talking on his cellphone. The young man stopped him and engaged him in the following conversation.
“Please sir, I’m trying to find a cab,” the man said. “What do you mean ‘a cab’? You mean a taxi?” responded Poonan. “Yes, I want to go to Riverside but my phone battery is dead,” the man said.
Poonan let him use his phone but since neither man had the telephone number for a taxi service, it came to naught. All the while, Poonan had his back to his unlocked vehicle next to which he was standing.
“I was about to offer the man a ride to Riverside, which was out of my way, because I wanted to help him, when he said no it was okay he would go down to the petrol station to try to find a taxi from there.”
When Poonan got into his car, he noticed the passenger door was slightly open, and when he leaned over to close it, he noticed that his laptop was gone.
“I think the guy’s accomplice was after the groceries, because that was all that was visible from outside, but when he opened the door he must have noticed the laptop and taken it instead.”
He ran down to the petrol station, looking for the man who had distracted him. He was gone. Later Poonan obtained the CCTV footage from security cameras of both the garage and the store, which he said were so helpful. In the footage he could clearly see himself running into view at the garage about a minute after the suspect had gotten into a vehicle with someone who had been clearly waiting for him (view video).
In the footage from the SUPERSPAR, Poonan said he could see a man walking away with his laptop bag, but the two suspects were not seen together and fate intervened that Poonan could copy the footage for himself.
He immediately reported the case to the police. “It is a brilliant trick,” he said. “Instead of breaking in you wait for the driver to unlock the car.”
He bemoans losing the videos and photographs of his family and children and vacations stored on the laptop as well as work documents. “This incident would make me not want to help anyone anymore.”
Watch the video here:
