A 30-year-old car dealer from Bulawayo, Brighton Chipunza, known as “Dash,” was arrested in connection with the theft of a South African-registered Toyota Fortuner. The vehicle was stolen from a car wash in the city’s central business district (CBD) last week.
Chipunza was linked to the crime through WhatsApp conversations with a suspected buyer, based in Harare. After a thorough investigation by police and the use of GPS tracking, the vehicle was traced and recovered from an accomplice named Julius Chitubhu in Harare.
According to reports, on November 18, the car owner, Silibaziso Ncube, instructed her employee, Jonathan Ngando Thuli, to take the vehicle to the Tunnel car wash for cleaning. The car wash attendant, Panashe Dube, cleaned and secured the vehicle, locking all doors and windows and leaving the keys on top of a hoover. However, when Ncube arrived later that day to collect the vehicle, it was gone.
The theft was reported to the police, and investigators from the Vehicle Theft Squad (VTS) discovered that the car wash’s CCTV cameras had been deactivated. On November 19, GPS tracking indicated the vehicle had been moved to Harare, where it was found parked at Chitubhu’s residence. The vehicle was missing its front and rear number plates, and the chassis number had been ground off.
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