Police officers flee from robbery crime scene, hide in garbage bin

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Police IG Libongani
Police IG Libongani

TWO armed police officers fled a crime scene in dramatic fashion when two robbers attacked Chainama Engen Mini Mart on Great East Road around midnight a fortnight ago.
The bandits sped off with an undisclosed amount of money using a Toyota Corolla.
The police officers, a male and female, who were detained by the police command, are facing disciplinary charges pending a tribunal hearing.
However, the robbers also grabbed money from two customers they found having a meal after they threatened to shoot them.
When the bandits entered the Mini Mart around midnight on March 14, they grabbed the tills, forced them open by cutting the electric cables because they did not have combination keys.
The tills opened and the cash was collected.
The male police officer, who was outside when the bandits struck, is the one who alerted the workers inside that they were under attack before he went to hide in a 210 litre garbage bin, where he stayed for over an hour until more police officers came to the scene.

His female counterpart hid in the car where she made several phone calls to the police command calling for reinforcements.
Reinforcements from the Zambia Police Service and a security company only came after an hour when the robbers had sped off with the cash.
It is believed that no one was injured during the robbery but the bandits fired two gunshots to threaten the two customers to release the money and one of them produced about K6,000.
The robbers did not get any money from the fuel attendants as it had been secured in the safe at the back store.
Three days later, some robbers attacked the spot again but this time they only demanded for the phone number of the owner of the place and threatened to deal with everyone because they were real criminals and not the ones that earlier attacked them.
Police spokesperson Charity Chanda confirmed the development in an interview yesterday, saying the officers have been charged with neglect of duty and would appear before a police tribunal.

Times of Zambia

33 COMMENTS

  1. ZP is only active and alive when it comes to roadblocks or dealing with opposition party cadres, kikikikikiki

  2. The two cops are a disgrace..I don’t think the female cop was even making a phone call to command..Like for example in Ndola,C5 Takes only 5-10mins to reach any crime scene within a vicinity of 5kms,so the chaps shud be tried,they culdnt use their guns to eliminate the robbers…This is the problem of recruiting chaps who are not mearnt for the job..Shame

  3. Instead of them protecting their families wth their lives y shud they protect millions of cash? Th most leading problem tht we hav here in Zambia is tht of ZP! They guard useless things heavily unlyk those tht ar benefitable.reconsider th charges and put yoselvs in their shoes wud u hav given up yo lyf over th money wich u ar not even to benefit from?think twice

  4. Instead of them protecting their families wth their lives y shud they protect millions of cash? Th most leading problem th we hav here in Zambia is tht of ZP! They gud useless things heavily unlyk those tht ar benefitable.reconsider th charges and put yoselvs in their shoes wud hav given up yo lyf over th money wich u ar not even to benefit from?think twice

  5. Do you remember what people used to say wen flying squard of then was always on time to curb crime? Ati ba flying squard are political what are you going to tell these people in uniforms now since ba reserve were also bad .people alway intimidating when clear ing traffic to pave there way to the scene on time.viva flying squard reserve

  6. Dear Editor,

    I write to inform you that the above picture was taken by one of our staff at Kasumbalesa and your media has made no attempt to accredit the owners of the picture accordingly.

    We have seen the trend with dismay in Zambian online media. Please note Editor that Deliberately failing to accredit is tantamount to plagiarism.

    At least it could have been understood if we had some kind of arrangement.

    My Regards
    Chinya Sakala

  7. Police are owayz just interested in making road blocks no time for any guns. They even call motorists ATMs…

  8. I could have done the same as well…elo nama hospital yanzelu palibe,,,ninshi batiganizila bwanji aba Bantu?ungafelemo wakayele….

  9. I could have done the same as well…elo nama hospital yanzelu palibe,,,ninshi batiganizila bwanji aba Bantu?ungafelemo wakayele….

  10. Mmmmm? In developed countries police officers are well trained, well equipped and well paid. In the absence of the 3, it should almost be normal for a police officer to hide in a bin, after all, why should I protect your millions with my life ?

  11. Mr Shumba I greatly doubt it that the ladycop was calling for reinforcement coz it takes the C5 about 20minutes the most to get to a crime scene within lusaka.

  12. The ones here who are suppose to be locked up, are those who came late ! I mean the female police officer tried to call for reinforcement and the other one alerted the customers , period !

  13. What can the police do wen the robbers re armed with guns nd they don’t even have cataputs, hiding in da was the best thing they did.

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