EASY come, easy go, so says the old adage.
Three of the five suspected armed robbers who pounced on a Beitbridge-bound Blue Circle bus near Rutenga and got away with more than R60 000 and about US$8 000 from passengers and the bus crew in the wee hours of Thursday morning had their joy short-lived.
They were reportedly arrested in a dramatic fashion before they could enjoy their loot.
According to reports from Neshuro Growth Point, it was the quest to impress a woman that exposed them as they flaunted a firearm and bundles of cash to win the heart of a bar lady.
The woman, while playing along, tipped off a policeman, leading to the suspects’ arrest.
National police spokesman Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest and said his office would issue a statement.
“I am going into a meeting, but we will issue a statement soon,” Nyathi said.
But the social media was way ahead with a blow-by-blow account of how the three passengers-turned-robbers were caught.
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Credit, according to several audios posted on social media, goes to a rural bottle store sales lady (name supplied), whose looks and tact disarmed the suspects.
Waking up from a rented lodge in the vicinity where they retired after their 230am Blue Circle bus hit, the three headed for a bottle store.
Each one of them wanted the bar lady.
An unannounced competition to win the lady’s heart ensued.
And, that was the beginning of their downfall as the lady played along and made them lose their guard.
“The one believed to be a soldier, wanted to outdo others and told the lady of his profession and asked her if she had ever seen a gun. He asked her to feel it in his satchel,” a recording said.
“She did and teased him that he was lying and what she had felt was just some piece of iron, prompting him to take out the gun and put it on the counter.
“And then he opened the satchel and showed the lady a huge amount of cash in both rand and United States dollars believed to be their bus score.”
As this was happening, the lady, who became suspicious because word of a bus robbery had spread, sent a text message to an off-duty police sergeant who was brisk and arrived in time for the show.
After a while, with the lady playing hard to get, the trio decided it was time to move and picked up their bags to head for a Beitbridge-bound minibus, where suspicious crews refused to carry the strangers.
“They settled on hiring a car and instructed the driver to wait for them further along the road. The policeman followed them at a distance while communicating for reinforcement he had long sought,” a witness narrated.
An hour later, the robbery suspects now in a hired pick-up truck were intercepted and arrested in a smooth operation that earned the police praise from the community.
“But we should not forget the lady and how she managed to sway the men yet communicating with the police,” said a resident of Neshuro while praising the lady’s bravado.
There are questions why the bus stopped at an unsafe place at that time of the night while carrying people going for shopping trips who will be known to have money.
“The passenger looked genuine and he spoke in Shona, only to use Venda when he called his friends from the back. That is when we realised we were in trouble. We believed they were genuine passengers,” said the bus driver Alex Takadiyi.
“We did not have a metal detector and since we ply the long-distance route, we pick and drop passengers along the way.”
They also did not have a passenger manifest. But for the three suspects, indeed, it was easy come, easy go for their short-lived rags to riches and riches to cells story.
