Ronald Pillai, security manager of Parow Centre, says he had been waiting for these skelms for two years and on Thursday when he spotted one of the men, he was determined to put them behind bars.
Earlier this month, a Bonteheuwel mother raised the alarm about fake police officers who scammed her at Vangate Mall and made off with R3000 cash.
The men apparently follow shoppers from ATMs and banks and then approach them by dropping money and asking them to pick it up.
If the person takes the money, they claim to be police officers and tell the shopper they are being arrested.
The shopper is then taken to a secluded part of the mall or outside where the fake cops “check” the money and skelmpies swop the shopper’s own money with a brown envelope full of cut up newspapers.
Pillai says since 2015, four shoppers have reported being scammed in this manner and he studied video footage to find pictures of the suspects.
According to the case reports, the four shoppers were scammed out of just over R8000 and in one case the victim was robbed of his laptop and two cellphones.
“They mostly target elderly people but in the case of the laptop it was a young guy,” Pillai says.
“I spotted the one suspect on the first floor just after 11am on Thursday. We could see that they were following a lady from the bank.
SPOTTED: Suspect allegedly tails people from ATMs
“With these two suspects, the one walks first and drops the money so the victim can see and then the other one comes along to pick it up.”
Pillai showed the Daily Voice footage of all the incidents and says shoppers must be vigilant when leaving ATMs or banks.
He says when they caught the two men, they did not seemed shocked.
SWOP: Victims end up with paper in envelope
“If you look, you will see they were very calm. They knew they were caught, we didn’t even have to handcuff them,” says Pillai.
“There are four cases against them, the suspects and video footage were handed over to Parow police.”
He urges people who have been scammed at other malls to contact the police and help to build a case against the
suspects.
Police spokesperson, Liuetenant Colonel André Traut confirms the arrests and says the duo are will appear in Parow court on Monday.