Terrified mother intimidated into buying fake DVDs

A casual shopper at Village Walk shopping centre was harassed into buying fake DVDs on Thursday, July 16.

“I was about to leave the centre after doing some shopping, I had just got into my car when I was approached by three male foreigners ,” said the resident. “They threw a bunch of DVDs in my lap and told me to buy some. I declined multiple times but they just wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

The men prevented her from closing her car door, and stood imposingly over her the whole while, demanding R30 for the DVDs’. “I had my kids in the car and I had no idea what could happen in a situation like this. I just wanted to get them out of there,” she said.

In an attempt to get them to leave, the resident decided to give them what they wanted. “I gave them R20 and asked them to leave, but as soon as they saw my wallet, they demanded even more. One of them reached into the car and forced my face towards them saying, ‘Look at us, we’re starving. Give us more’. By this point I was too frightened to do anything else so I gave them more. I must have ended up giving them over R100.”

Eventually a patrolling security guard noticed what the men were doing, and they took off as soon as he confronted them.

Centre Manager, Debbie Patching-Bozza, said she had no knowledge of the incident.” No one reported this to us. We do not allow vendors in our parking lot and we have security guards and security cameras in place to deter any crime,” she said.

“I want to warn people, especially women, to be observant when in places like this. It didn’t even cross my mind that something like this could happen,” said the resident.

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