An 18-year-old boy, Segun Adeyefa, has been arrested by the police in Lagos for allegedly packaging bars of soap as mobile phones and selling same to unsupecting members of the public.
Adeyefa was reportedly caught in the act on Tuesday by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad at the Ikorodu Motor Park.
It was learnt that the suspect’s gimmick was to cut soap and cartons into phone shapes, enclose them in phone casing and sell to commuters in the traffic. He was said to have sold a fake phone to a customer for N3,500 before he was arrested.
Fake phones, soap bars, shirts, cash, packet of envelopes and cut-to-size cartons were said to have been recovered from him.
The suspect has been transferred to the Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit for prosecution.
In his statement to the police, Adeyefa said he took to the crime after he was duped through the same antics about a year ago.
He said, “What I usually do is called exchange. My prospective victims will have the mind of buying handsets from me but unknowingly to them, I would have changed the real handset to soap wrapped with cut to size carton inside an envelope.
“I will engage them in a discussion after showing them real phone initially, and in the process of bargaining for the price, I will change it with the aid of a white handkerchief.
“I will tell them to keep the phone inside their pockets immediately that people are watching us. As soon as the buyer leaves the spot, I will immediately change location by moving to another place.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, warned the public to be wary of individuals who approach them to buy phones in traffic.
No comments:
Post a Comment