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| National |
| Thieves steal police vehicle |
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by
George Ntonya, 18 July 2003
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14:48:49
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In a James Bond kind of operation some men in the Capital Lilongwe on Tuesday night stole one of the new vehicles government has bought for the police and drove it past a police roadblock.
A resident from Biwi Township, where the car was stolen, said on Thursday some police officers parked the vehicle outside a bottle store, but were surprised to find it gone after the drinking spree.
“The thieves used a master key to drive the car,” said the resident adding that the thieves found the officers’ caps in the car, which they wore as they approached Bunda police road block about 10 kilometres away.
“We hear that the police officers manning the road block never bothered to ask the thieves anything since they had the police caps on,” said the resident. “The thieves abandoned the car hours later in Dedza because they ran out of fuel.”
The government recently bought 133 cars, most of them Land Cruisers, for the police to ease transport problems and enhance patrol services.
A senior police officer confirmed the theft of the vehicle but denied it was stolen at a drinking place. According to him, a resident from Biwi called the police to deal with people who were fighting in the neighbourhood and the thieves stole the car as the police officers tried to stop the fight.
“We managed to recover the vehicle at Lobi in Dedza but the thieves were not arrested,” said the officer and confirmed that the thieves used a master key.
“We have also managed to find the master key which they used.”
Police spokesman George Chikowi said he had not received any report on the theft because he was in Mulanje on other duties and his assistant Kelvin Maigwa was reported out of the office. Biwi has over the years been known for such unexpected occurrences. Two men who went there for a drinking spree a few years ago ended up being shot dead in separate incidents. |
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