It is said that the scammers would enter a supermarket under the pretext of shopping, they would then drop a packet filled with what appears to be R150 near their target.

With the victim completely blindsided, only the top two back notes wrapped around a wad of newspapers were real.

They would then approach their victim and point out the money on the ground and ask if it belonged to them.

The smooth-talking scammer would then convince the victim that they leave the store to split the money between them.

Once they leave the store the scammer would then ask the victim to get into his car and they would drive off to a quieter location.

On arrival at the location, they would then Rob off the victims of their valuables and dump them on the side of the road.

It is said that the syndicate usually consists of four to five people.

On Wednesday (18 May 2022) a female victim was approached by a man in a silver VW Polo as she exited a supermarket to split the ‘cash’ with a man who pointed it out to her.

It is said that the male was wearing a SAPS mask and produced a SAPS appointment card, it was then that he told the woman that she was under arrest for theft.

It was then that she was coerced to get into the car with the person she was supposed to split the ‘cash’ with.

It was then that they dove to Grange in Verulam where the woman was robbed of her cellphone, a handbag containing her documents and keys, and an undisclosed amount of cash before speeding off.

The victim then registered a Case at Verulam SAPS and informed the Supermarket’s Management of the incident.

It is said that the suspects returned to the supermarket today and when confronted by the store’s employees they split up and ran with the staff in persuit.

A female and suspect were apprehended, and during the chase, it is said that the male suspect threw the ‘Wad of cash’.

It was then that Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) responded to the scene, when the female suspect was interviewed she alleged that she didn’t know the male suspect before but that wasn’t the case as CCTV footage confirmed that she handed the male the ‘wad of cash” in the store.

The previous victim was then called and she positively identified the male suspect as the make who acted as a ‘SAPS officer’ and his vehicle was located outside the store.

The duo was then arrested and the SAPS mask and SAPS appointment card were recovered in his possession.