Car thieves getting smarter, they are using donkeys to smuggle cars across the border
Police in South Africa have foiled an attempt to smuggle a stolen luxury car into Zimbabwe using donkeys to pull it across the Limpopo river.
The suspects fled into the bushes towards Zimbabwe after their efforts to free the car from the sand failed, local police say.
Last December a vehicle stolen in Durban was recovered on the same river, attached to a group of donkeys.
Local police are investigating whether a syndicate is behind the new practice.
Police Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo says a Mercedes Benz C220 was recovered on the riverbed close to Musina.
“The suspects were using donkeys to pull the car across the river‚ but our members were just in time to pounce on them after the donkeys were apparently no longer able to pull it through the sand,” Mr Mojapelo is quoted in local media as saying.
The donkeys were unharmed.
The Limpopo River forms the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe and is a well known transit point for illegal immigrants moving between both countries but the news of it becoming a smuggling point for cars is a surprise development, says the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.
Authorities regularly patrol the Beit-Bridge border post to monitor movements between the two countries in a bid to curb cross-border crime, our correspondent says.
Source: News Daily