Police have once again issued a warning to owners of Toyota RunX cars to be extra careful as the vehicles are the preferred target for car thieves. The police said in recent months the number of RunX cars that were stolen has skyrocketed. So far, only one foreign suspect has been arrested in-connection with the theft of Run X cars.
Speaking to The Telegraph this week, detective assistant superintendent, Joshua Ntau, revealed that 127 cars, most of them RunX, were stolen since the beginning of the year.
However, about 50 of the stolen cars have been recovered.
“This is very worrying to us, but we are working very hard to contain the situation. The public should not panic because we are doing our best to identify the culprits,” he said.
Ntau said so far only one suspect, Ronald Kangwa, a foreigner aged 32, was arrested recently while attempting to enter the country through Ramokgwebana border post. He added that Kangwa was arrested in connection with car theft and will assist the police to trace the whereabouts of his partners in crime. He revealed that the car theft syndicate is made up of locals, Zambian, Zimbabwean and South African nationals.
“These car theft syndicates are based in Gaborone and Francistown,” he said.
Though they have arrested only one suspect, Ntau said he is confident that soon they will be able to crack down on the syndicate. He said the police are motivated because they have the identities of the suspects and it is just a matter of time before they pounce on them. He also revealed that they recently recovered two vehicles from Zimbabwe that were stolen in Botswana.
“Our massage to the owners of such cars is for them to reinforce security in their vehicles,” he said.
