Times are hard and it seems 3 Choppies guards from Bulawayo decided to do something about that has ultimately landed them in trouble. The trio were employed by Guard Security Company and deployed to guard a branch Choppies in Nkulumane.

According to the Chronicle three guards: Jethro Tumbare (39) of Pumula South suburb, Matthew Moyo (27) of Emganwini suburb and Noah Muzvidziwa (47) of Nketa 9 hatched a plan to steal from their charge and broke in through the ceiling.

However, for some reason they were identified as culprits and the matter was reported to the police. The police upon receipt of the report decided to visit the homestead of each of the suspects:

Police started at Tumbare’s house were they discovered groceries worth $4 235 which they identified as part of the stolen loot
Then followed a visit to Muzvidziwa’s house were they recovered groceries worth $3 994
At Moyo’s house they recovered groceries worth $4 363

This brought the total value of the recovered groceries to more than $12 000 ZWL. The stolen items included rice, washing powder, soap, sugar, powdered milk, toothpaste, flour, among other things. None of the three could account for how they came to be in possesion of the recovered items.

The three finally pleaded guilty before Harare magistrate Tancy Dube who sentenced them to 30 years in prison with 6 months suspended and for the remaining 24 months the convicts can serve 630 hours of community service each instead of serving time.