MVUMA – Anyway Milanzi (26) played a James Bond at Whawha Prison two weeks ago when he broke into seven prison officers’ houses and walked out of each with a minimum of two cellphones and in some case collecting as many as two laptops from one house.
All the break-ins happened in one night, between 2 and 3:30am with one of the cellphones stolen from under a woman’s pillow.
Milanzi of Mukonono Farm Darwendale along Harare-Chinhoyi Road faced seven counts of unlawful entry and theft and was slapped with seven years in prison when he appeared before Mvuma Magistrate Tayengwa Chibanda last week.
The crime was committed on September 24 this year.
Almost all the victims discovered the crime a few minutes after it happened and they bumped into each other outside their houses as they tried to figure out what happened to their gadgets. They picked up Milanzi’s footsteps and tracked them to Gweru – Mvuma High Way where they found the accused looking for transport to Gweru while hanging a satchel from his shoulders.
They asked to search him and he dropped the satchel and ran away but was apprehended after a chase.
At around 230am Milanzi entered Washington Chikogwe’ s house and collected two HP Laptops valued at $600 and all were recovered. At around the same time he gained entry into Thomas Muchena’s house and Muchena was awoken by his wife
Yengiwe Chinyanyu a few minutes later who asked him the whereabouts of their Samsung cellphone and a Yateley cellphone which were on the charger.
As the complainant went out to alert other people in the camp, he met Chikogwe and Robin Muchena who were searching for the thief who had stolen their property.
The trio teamed up and traced the accused’s footprints and apprehended him.
Milanzi had also stolen from Robin Muchena’s house and the complainant woke up at around 2:45am and discovered that his Samsung GT 19500 was missing and his brother Thomas Muchena and his wife were also complaining about their stolen cellphones.
Milanzi also entered into Martha Manunure’s house and stole a Black G- Tel A704 i cellphone. Manunure woke up after she was disturbed by fellow victims talking outside. She discovered that her phone under the pillow was missing.
The accused also stole from Linda Shara (26) at around 3am.Shara heard her neighbour Chinyanyu asking for her cellphone from her husband and woke up to notice that her samsung serial number R51HBOAROQA valued at $185 which she had put on the charger was missing.
Milanzi also entered Pio Mudereri’s (36) house and a blue Samsung S6 Edge Cellphone which was on the side bed. He thought he left it in the dining but while there he noticed that his other white Samsung tablet 10 inch cellphone was missing and further, his small Samsung cellphone, a pair of eyesight correctional lens and a grey HP Laptop were missing.
Michael Kazomba prosecuted.