•Ifeoma with the stolen goods |
According to Vanguard
''It was the end of the road for a 32-year-old woman alleged to be
engaged in stealing in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, following her
arrest by operatives of the Rivers State Police Command.
The
single parent was arrested in her Ikoyi residence in Lagos, for
allegedly stealing goods worth N2.9 million.Described as a socialite,
and judging from classy appearance, soft-spoken Ifeoma William Iheanacho
does not look like a criminal.
Aside
this physical feature is the fact that the suspect, popularly called
Ify, possesses an international passport which showed she has made trips
to Hungary, Dubai, China and has even lived in Hong Kong for three
years. She also speaks different languages and quite knowledgeable about
many things.
READ MORE AFTER THE CUT...............................
The
suspect, from Mbieri community in Mbaitolu Local Government Area of
Imo State , according to the Rivers State Police Command, visited Zara
Boutique at 4,Mbonu Street, D/line,Port Harcourt,on March 26, 2014,
posing as a wealthy customer and a friend of the owner, one Mrs Oroma
Amadi. Prior to the visit, Ify reportedly acquainted herself with the
owner.
On
that day, the shop owner was out. “She entered the shop asking to be
shown the female trousers area. The unsuspecting salesgirl, Kemeagbeye
Rachael, 21, led the suspect to the area where she selected two pairs of
trousers and bargained but was dissatisfied with the price and
requested to speak to the shop owner. When the salesgirl put a call
through to her ‘madam’, Ifeoma spoke with her and consequently the
unsuspecting salesgirl agreed to her demand,” a police source narrated.
“After
conversing with Mrs Amadi on phone, Ifeoma didn’t give phone back to
the sales girl. Instead she asked her to go into the inner part of the
store to get some other wares for her.
While Rachel was busy sorting out
other things as directed , Ifeoma proceeded to edit the ‘madam’s’
contact on the phone which was still with her, by replacing the number
with her’s. Then she gave the phone back and minutes later, she sent a
text message to the girl posing as her boss. The message sent read thus ‘
I’m in a meeting , Mrs Jay is already in the shop. ‘Pls give her what
she wants, I will pick the money on my way to the shop’.”
Shortly
after that another message came which read ‘ also give her the hair
box’. To further convince the salesgirl, she was said to have asked her
if she had received any text message from the owner of the shop in
respect of the transaction, to which she responded in the affirmative.
At
that point, the sales girl,in her statement to the police, said Ifeoma
started packing the wares selected. She allegedly selected assorted
wares ranging from female bags to clothes, wrist watches, male/female
shoes and shirts estimated at N2.9 million and left the boutique.
Hell,
literally let loose when owner of the boutique arrived ,only to be
confronted with the unexpected. Her sales girl was stunned beyond
description on noticing that she had been fooled!
The
case was immediately reported to the Rivers State Special Anti-Robbery
Squad which initially found the theft a difficult nut to crack because
of its clueless nature. However, the breakthrough the operatives needed
came two months later when they were able to track the suspect’s call
data through a complex set of operation.
Police
sources said: “ One Ikechukwu Onyema, aka Van Damme , later discovered
to have bought the stolen goods from Ifeoma, was contacted. His
confessional statement led us to the suspect’s place in Lagos from
where she was transferred to Port Harcourt . Some of the stolen goods
were recovered from her.
“During
interrogation, the mother of one,who claimed she had both her primary
and secondary education in Abia State, also claimed to have been a
student of theatre arts at University of Ibadan before dropping out
after she became pregnant.
“
She confessed to have carried out similar operations in different
boutiques in Port Harcourt using her one time fiancé’s Lexus jeep to
pose as an affluent customer. After her confession, she soberly said; ‘I
want Nigerians to forgive me, I still can’t understand why I chose to
steal seeing that I am a comfortable lady.”
Rivers
State Commissioner of Police Tunde Ogunsakin, while reacting to the
arrest , advised members of the public to be mindful of the people they
deal with, adding that such incident could befall anyone who turns a
blind eye to caution while doing business.
“This
case involves a really smart criminal, one that you won’t easily
suspect and it can happen to any person. So we can all see that one
cannot be too careful when dealing with customers and other members of
society”, stated Ogunsakin
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