DURBAN - A 38-year-old woman who allegedly snatches chocolates from local shops to resell elsewhere has been arrested.
The alleged ‘habitual chocolate thief’, as described by Reaction Unit South Africa head Prem Balram, was arrested earlier today at a store on Wick Street in the Verulam CBD, north of Durban.
Balram claimed that the woman was arrested previously by his security team but that had not deterred her. Instead, she continued to steal chocolate.
Photographs released by RUSA show the woman, a resident from Ndwedwe, with a pink school bag loaded with Kit-Kat chocolates that she allegedly stole, which would be resold for R5 at the Verulam taxi rank, half the price of the chocolate's store value.
The woman is believed to be part of a crime syndicate linked to a shoplifting syndicate.
Balram said: “Members of Reaction Unit South Africa were called out to the store and upon arrival found the suspect in possession of a pink school bag containing chocolates. During an interview with the suspect she said she removed two boxes of the chocolates from a shelf near the entrance of the store and proceeded to a quieter isle where she loaded the chocolates into a school bag which she had also stolen.”
Balram said a staff member of the shop apprehended the woman before she left the store.
He said: “The suspect informed officers that the stolen chocolates which sell for R10 at the store were to be sold at the Verulam taxi rank for half the price. She is a habitual criminal and is not deterred by arrest and detention."