Neerosha Jooma’s account of events is strikingly similar to that of a woman reported on in April 2016.

Pearl Viljoen told www.mobserver.co.za how a stranger started talking to her whilst she was fitting sunglasses in Clicks last year. Her story ended with R3 000 being withdrawn from her bank account and security footage that shows how she willingly handed over her handbag as well as writing down the pin code for her bank card and giving it to someone she seems to know. Police and security personnel were sceptic about Mrs Viljoen’s version of events.

Over the past weekend, Mrs Jooma suffered a similar fate. In a message written by her, she said that awareness has to be created about these types of incidents.

“We need to create awareness. This is our mall. Be vigilant, these things happen even in our town.”

She too claims that she handed over her handbag and cellphone to complete strangers, after meeting a woman in an aisle in Checkers. As with Mrs Viljoen, video footage showed what seems to be a group of friends sitting and talking on a bench in the mall. It also shows her giving them her bag and phone.

Also read: Middelburg march againts drugs

Mrs Jooma described how her mind was screaming that something was wrong, but her body could not react. She recalled having a dry mouth, pounding head and feelings of nausea.

After looking at the video footage, Mrs Jooma says that she felt like a complete fool. One of the guards kept on saying that muti was used, something Mrs Jooma is beginning to agree with judging from her strange actions.

• Because of the lack of enthusiasm to investigate Mrs Viljoen’s case in 2016, she turned to the internet to look for possible answers to explain her strange behaviour.

What she discovered made her hair stand on end; Scopolamine, commonly known as Devil’s Breath, is a drug derived from the Borrachero tree, indigenous to South America and Columbia in particular.

Also read: Woman claims she was drugged

In a bone chilling documentary, Vice.com travelled to Bogota, Columbia and spoke to several people including drug dealers and prostitutes who sell and use the drug to lure unsuspecting victims into a zombie-like stage where they are unable to refuse commands given to them.

The documentary includes victims telling how they helped thieves load the entire contents of their flats onto a truck, waking up days later with no recollection of what happened.

Scientists studying scopolamine say that the drug blocks certain neurotransmitters in the brain, causing amnesia and making the subject passive, but not unable to refuse commands.

According to the website Everup.com, reports of scopolamine incidents outside Columbia or Ecuador started surfacing in 2003. Since then, the American Embassy has put up a warning on its website, to make citizens travelling to the South American countries where scopolamine is commonly used, aware of the dangers.

Also read: Two arrested for drugs

In 2015, three people were arrested for scopolamine induced muggings in Paris.

• A national news website reported on a woman being drugged and robbed at the Brooklyn Mall in 2015. Peo Holele could not remember what happened to her after encountering two strange women. She regained her senses whilst standing in line at a grocery store.

A doctor speculated that Mrs Holele might have inhaled ethyl or ethane chloride, a mild anaesthetic.

Also read: Drugs worth R12mil. confiscated