In trouble for pickpocketing

• Women pickpockets more organised –Police

Daniel

Many people used to view pickpocketing as a minor and insignificant crime often perpetrated by men. But recent revelation by police source, revealed that maturewomen, aided by younger ladies, are now actively competing with male counterparts in the crime and getting upper hands. A police source said: “Not only are the women competing favourably well with their male counterparts, they are more focused and cleverer than the men.

They are also more organised in this crime.” One of such ladies was recently arrested by policemen attached to the Oke-Odo Police Station, Ile-Epo, Lagos State. According to the detectives, the lady, Joy Daniel, 24, went to the Katangowa market, in the company of three women, with the sole aim of fleecing pockets and handbags of innocent traders, but she failed. She was arrested while her cronies bolted, mixing with the crowd in the market.
Singing like a bird, Daniel, who is married and has two kids, described the three women who ran away as matured, married women, blessed with grown up kids. She, however, said she never knew they were professional pickpockets. She denied being a member of the gang, adding that after everything she witnessed, she knew the women were old hands on the job. After listening to Daniel’s repeated denial, one comes away confused. Is she guilty or not? When her husband, a hairstylist came to the police station to know what happened, he heard from the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), that his wife belonged to a gang of pickpockets and without bothering to hear her own side of the story, told her that he was through with the marriage. He ordered her to come and pack her belongings anytime she leaves the police custody.
The action of her husband made detectives to begin working on the theory that Daniel had been doing such before and had probably been warned by her husband. Perhaps, that day was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. On the fateful day that Daniel was arrested, three women suddenly noticed that their handbags had been brutally sliced open with blade and their wallets, purses taken.
One of the women’s wallet was recovered from Daniel. Also found in her possession were a blade and small kitchen knife. These items further incriminated Daniel even as she denied being a member of the gang. Recalling how angry traders and buyers pounced on her, Daniel said with tears welling in her eyes: “The people just pounced on me. They stripped me naked and started beating me. Some people used planks to hit me. Some started taking snapshots of my nudeness; they said they would put it on the Internet. I was almost killed for a crime I didn’t commit! Bring anything, Bible or Koran and I’ll swear bt it. I didn’t steal or cut open anybody’s handbag. This cloth I’m wearing was given to me by a good Samaritan.” One of the victims, Mrs. Fatimah Fajebola, a widow, said that although she felt pretty sorry after watching the way Daniel was almost lynched alive in the market, she, however, maintained that Daniel was part of a gang of female pickpockets.
Fajebola, crying too, said: “I borrowed that money. I wanted to use it to trade and refund the owner. Now, I just don’t know what to do. People apprehended her just a few minutes after I noticed that my bag had been cut open with a blade and my purse missing. When I saw people beating her, I rushed over to the scene, hoping to recover my purse and money, but I didn’t see my purse with her. The lady was beaten too much. I even started crying for her, I begged them to spare her life. She was taken to Oke-Odo Police Station. I went to narrate the incident to my pastor.
He told me that Daniel was not the person that took my purse, but that she was part of the gang. She and her gang members stationed themselves in different places. They work together in an organised manner.” She recalled that she had N12, 000 inside the purse, her voter’s card, identity card and shop and home keys. She said: “I wanted to actually pay for some clothes I had bought when I noticed that my handbag had been cut open and my purse stolen.” Daniel, a National Diploma Holder, has a quick response to any question thrown at her. She explained how the blade, kitchen knife and the recovered wallet came to be in her possession. According to her, one of the three women gave her a scarf to hold and inside the scarf, were the blade and wallet. She, however, admitted that the kitchen knife belonged to her.
She explained that when she was leaving home, she had simply picked up a bag, unaware that the kitchen knife was inside it. Recounting how she landed in police custody, Daniel said: “I reside at Orile, Igamu. I sell baby wears. During the governorship election, I travelled to Cross-River to get my voter’s card. I later travelled to Aba, in Abia State to buy handbags to sell. It was there I met the women. I had already known them before that day. I used to buy clothes from them. They are three. One is Sandra and another is Ngozi. I don’t know the third one’s name.
They have stands at Aba where they sell, but used to come to Calabar during market days to sell. On that the day I went to buy the handbags, they asked why I had become scarce, I told them that I was married and now residing in Lagos. They said they would be coming to Lagos to buy goods and requested to stay with me. But I told them that my husband wouldn’t allow it.” After buying the items she wanted to resell, she left for her village. She said she was at the village when Sandra sent her a text message. “She said she wanted to find out about the goods they would be going to Lagos to buy. I returned to Lagos on Thursday and she called me on Friday morning, but I refused to pick her call. I refused to pick her call because my husband was around.
He said I shouldn’t be making friends. Sandra called again, this time she said they were at Katangowa Market, at Ile- Epo. But used to buy my goods from Yaba Market.” She said she had never visited Katagwua Market before that day, but decided to go after Sandra convinced her that baby wears were cheaper there. Daniel said that Sandra claimed that it was also her first time in Lagos and the market in particular. Sandra explained however that she knew clothes were cheaper there because one of her sisters-in-law told her so. Sandra urged her to come and know the market.
Daniel continued her narration: “I went to the market to meet them. I told my husband that I was going to Katangowa Market. I had N11, 000 with me. When I reached the main market; I saw some nice baby wears. I bought about N6, 500 worth of baby clothes from a woman. I called Sandra that I was outside the main market. The three of them came to meet me where traders sell shoes. Sandra gave me the scarf and wallet to hold for her. It appeared like she wanted to check out the baby shoes. Suddenly a woman standing close to me, turned. She said so a fine girl like you is a thief. She said the wallet was her own. She collected it from me. She called me a thief. People gathered and started beating me. I turned and couldn’t find Sandra and others. They had all ran away. My hands and legs were tied and severe beatings were inflicted on me.
I saw hell!” Daniel pulled up her clothes and presented horrifying reddish and purple bruises covering her body. She was arrested by the security guards in the market. She said that they told her not to call Sandra and others, to make apprehending them easier, but she had still gone ahead to call. She said she was desperate to make the call. “When I called Sandra, she said they were in Balogun Market, on the Lagos Island. She said they had already left Katangowa.” Daniel was bundled to Oke-Odo Police Station. She said she was there when her phone rang.
The caller was Sandra. Daniel said that it appeared Sandra was laughing at her. Daniel stated: “Sandra said she had been calling me all this while with a business line, that she was going to remove the SIM card and throw it away. She said she was going to insert her real line and call me.
She said what happened to me was pay back for what my brother did to her in Cross-River. Since then, I’ve called the phone number, but it remained permanently switched off.” The suspect said that she started buying baby wears from the women since 2013. She said that after what happened to her, she knew she was set up and truly believed that aside from selling clothes, that the women do pickpocketing as another mean of sourcing for livelihood. She said: “Police should go to MTN, to find out their real identity. I don’t think the names they gave me were their real names. I’m even ready to take the police to their stands at Aba. Police should please not charge me to court. My husband had already left me.”
NEW TELEGRAPH