Elderly woman forgets where she parked her car, reports it stolen

A Bulawayo woman stretched the "efficiency" of the police's Vehicle Theft Squad (VTS) to the limit when she forgot where she had parked her car and reported it stolen. The incident, which has since been laughed off by the detectives, occurred on Monday last week.

The detectives spent a week hunting for the vehicle, a white Nissan Sunny.

Sources close to the investigation said Mrs Catherine Parshotam (76) of Kumalo suburb, made a report that her car had been stolen.

"She was highly agitated. She said she had parked her car in front of St Gabriel's Nursery where she had gone to collect her husband and found it gone about 15 minutes later. She said there were groceries and other valuables in the car," said a police source.

Another police officer said the matter was promptly referred to the Vehicle Theft  Squad.

"These VTS guys are highly efficient and organised. Once a report comes in, information is dispatched to almost all the parts of the country and border posts. They have a high recovery rate of stolen vehicles," said the officer.

The officer said the case was quickly assigned to detectives who began combing the city for the car and gathering information from sources.

A civilian source said on Monday, a worker at Madlala Tours reported that there was a car that had been parked in front of a restaurant along Josiah Tongogara Street for more than a week.

"When police arrived at the place, they found that it was the car that was reported stolen," said the source.

"When Mrs Parshotam was called, she opened the doors of the car and found everything intact.

"Only some of the grocery items had gone bad. She seemed to get her memory back and she said she distinctly remembered parking the car at the place," said a police officer.

Contacted for comment, acting police spokesperson for Bulawayo Assistant Inspector Bekimpilo Ndlovu yesterday confirmed the incident.

"We received a report of theft of a motor vehicle that was said to have been parked along Fife Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenue on 22 August. The car was recovered intact along Josiah Tongogara Street on Monday," said Asst Insp Ndlovu.

He declined to shed more light on the issue saying investigations were still in progress.

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