Police

Image via: @Abramjee Twitter

Watch: Smoking gun as Tshwane metro police accused of ransacking store

A video posted to Twitter on 30 December 2019, shows metro police allegedly stealing cigarettes from a Pretoria store.

Police

Image via: @Abramjee Twitter

A video was posted to Twitter on 30 December 2019, showing up to four officers, allegedly from the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD), removing boxes and cartons of cigarettes from the shelves in a shop in Booysens, Pretoria.

The caption of the video says that it is TMPD police officers and that they were caught stealing. However, Twitter users said that they could have simply been removing “illegal” cigarettes from the shelves. 

Watch: Police allegedly steal cigarettes  

What can be seen in the video 

In the video, up to four police officers can be seen removing cigarette boxes and cartons from the shelves and transferring it to bags and boxes.

It is unclear whether the police officers are stealing the cigarettes or confiscating the cigarettes for being sold illegally. 

However, in the video, the police officers said to be from TMPD, appear to be taking their time. 

Two officers can be seen packing, while two others watch on the other side of the counter. 

Eventually, only one officer is packing countless cartons into a bag. 

A man who appears to be working at the store, stands behind the counter watching them. He doesn’t say anything or put up a fight. 

Images were then posted of a store that appeared to be ransacked. The caption read: “The @TMPDSafety cops ransacked a shop and stole various items…” 

However, it cannot be confirmed that those police officers in particular, took those missing items.

Twitter reactions to police video 

Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree over the video. Some users defended the cops saying one cannot jump to conclusions and perhaps they were just confiscating alleged illegal goods. 

“I’m sure they’re not stealing, maybe they’re removing illegal cigarettes; now these illegal traders are saying that they’re stealing, before putting it in the media. We must make sure of what we are saying, did they open a case against those cops?” said one user. 

Another topic that seemed to consume Twitter users, was that of foreigners. Most of the users were more worried about the shop owners being in the country illegally than they were about the possibility of police stealing. 

“Are they paying tax those ppl who are kwitizing at da back 1st, do they have papers to be here?”

“We don’t care, the issue here is those foreigners should leave our country as they came illegally. We can’t even hear their language.”

Many users also questioned Yusuf Abramjee, who posted the video, saying that he can’t be sure that the police were stealing. 

“Those are illegal cigarettes, stop spreading lies!!!” one user said. 

Haroon Abramjee replied, saying: “A case has been opened, the confiscated stock was never booked in”. 

Yusuf also added: “The cops allegedly stole the stock. The victim has opened criminal charges.”