Women trick boy out of cellphone
Two women spin 13 year old boy a yarn to steal his phone.
Tshegofatso Ngobeni
A young boy was hoodwinked by two women and robbed of his cellphone outside his house in Eastlynne on Monday.
Tyreese Lottering (13), a Laerskool Derdepoort Grade 7 pupil, on his way back from school, was standing outside his yard on the corner of 53 Lanham Street and Dreyer Avenue when the two tricked him into giving them his phone.
The two women who were English-speaking non South Africans, asked Lottering to lend them his phone claiming they needed to contact their pastor.
Lottering said the women told him that their pastor had been robbed of R4 000 by young boys near Shoprite in Eastlynne, and they wanted to find out how he was coping.
Loterring gave them his cellphone and while they were on the phone, he went inside the house to drop off his school bag. But when he returned, the three had fled.
He said he ran back inside to tell his father and sister (19) what had happened.
Lottering, who had memorised the registration number of the muggers’ car, told his family that the blue Honda, with registration number HLK 781 GP was driven by a man.
But that number proved fake.
Lottering’s mother Angeline Phillips said the Villeria police told her she had to bring the original packaging for the cellphone to lay a charge.
When she found the box, Phillips called the police and was informed the investigating officer would come to their house. No one pitched.
Phillips said that her son was traumatised and struggling to sleep.
“My son is really traumatised and not sleeping. He is afraid that he will see those women in his dreams,” said Phillips.
Phillips said that she was worried about what had happened to her son and hoped that it would not happen to other children.
“My son is not worried about his cellphone, he is was just happy he was not kidnapped,” Phillips said.
Lottering said a classmate of his was robbed in a similar crime in the area. The family suspected a syndicate was targeting children in the vicinity.
Phillips urged parents to speak to their children about safety and warned them against speaking to strangers.
“Children should avoid lending their phones to strangers,” she said.
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