Was Devil’s Breath, deemed the world’s most dangerous drug, used to rob a Middelburg resident of all her valuables?

Pearl Viljoen (42) says she went to Clicks in the Middelburg Mall to get a prescription from the pharmacy after a visit to the doctor on 1 April.

On her way to the counter, she noticed sunglasses on display and decided to fit a couple of pairs because hers recently went missing.

“I was busy trying on the sunglasses when a woman started talking to me. She commented on how certain pairs looked good on me. Whilst she was talking to me I suddenly felt light headed. I looked at a few more pairs and then started walking away,” said Ms Viljoen.

She said that the woman kept on talking to her. She told her that she has a friend working as a supervisor in Clicks and that she could get her 50 % discount on products.

Ms Viljoen said that she felt confused and dazed. The woman kept on talking and a second one approached her. She claimed that she was working at Clicks and made her the same offer the first woman did.

“They kept on talking. Telling me how nice it is to get so much discount. I followed them like a sheep to the slaughter, I kept on thinking that I couldn’t remember what I wanted to buy, it was like my mind and my body were in two different places.”

The first ‘shopper’ went with the woman who posed as the Clicks employee and left her bag with Ms Viljoen. They returned a short while later and Ms Viljoen was told that it was her turn. The woman asked her if she was going to pay with cash or with a card.

She was asked to write down her pin after she indicated that she will pay with a card.

“I asked her what she wanted with my pin and she said that she needed to enter it into the system because I will be shopping with her staff card to get the discount. She said that I will have my card with me at all times so it will be okay. I remember thinking that I did not want to be there and that I had nothing I wanted to buy, but still I complied with her instructions.”

Ms Viljoen said that as they walked towards Clicks the woman told her to leave her handbag with the other women because they will be going into the store room where bags are not allowed. She left it with them and followed the woman.

“At the door she said I must go inside and choose what I want, she will be with me in a couple of minutes. Then she disappeared into thin air.”

Ms Viljoen said that she realised something was wrong when she couldn’t find the other women who was supposed to be waiting outside. She immediately walked to Capitec Bank to cancel her card. In the minutes it took her to get from Clicks to Capitec, her scammers managed to withdraw R3 000 out of her bank account from two different tellers.

“They must have had a car waiting to take them to the other side of the mall. And they had to have had someone waiting in line because it was the end of the month, all the ATM’s in the mall had very long queues,” said Ms Viljoen.

She only managed to get her car towed to her home late on Friday night, because her car keys were in her handbag that was stolen. Ms Viljoen went to the police station the following day but she claims that police refused to help her.

She returned to the station on Tuesday when a policeman she knows promised to assist her. She opened a case and had an appointment with a detective to obtain video material from the Middelburg Mall on the Wednesday.

“We were supposed to meet at 09:00. I left after 11:00 because I realised he was not coming. He said that he won’t be available for the rest of the week. I haven’t heard anything from the police since then. I do not even have a case number.”

Ms Viljoen got her case number later in the week. She is still waiting for police to get the video material from security cameras in the mall. Unfortunately, Clicks do not have security cameras in the store.

Ms Viljoen said that she decided to speak to the Middelburg Observer to warn other people to be wary of strangers trying to make small talk.

• The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, reported how an estimated 20 people in Paris fell prey to theft by a group of women using Devil’s Breath (scopolamine) a drug derived from the seeds of the borrachero tree, indigenous to South America. The drug, in powder form, is blown into the faces of victims, causing them to enter a state where they are conscious but unable to control their actions or ignore commands.

Middelburg march againts drugs

Urban legends like a man helping two strangers to carry all his belongings out of his house and onto a truck were confirmed in a documentary by a Vice.com investigative team who travelled to Bogota in Columbia, where the borrachero tree grows wild. Interviews with victims as well as drug dealers and prostitutes who use the drug to get their targets to fall into a zombie-like daze, confirmed that scopolamine, or burundanga as it is known in Columbia, might possibly be the world’s most dangerous drug.

No confirmed reports of the drug being used in South Africa could be found.

Two arrested for drugs

• A trusted source said that a woman claimed to have a similar experience in Woolworths a year or so back. In a video obtained from police, another victim can be seen handing over her handbag to three women in Checkers in October 2015. She claimed that the women convinced her to hand over her valuables to someone posing as a security guard after they told her that thieves were targeting women in the shop.

Update: Drugs worth R12mil. confiscated

• A source at Correctional Services revealed how a prisoner described to a social worker that they use a substance to drug victims before robbing them. He could not be traced at the time of going to press.