Crime & Punishment of Sunday, 18 August 2013

Source: Joy Online

Serial 'wedding thief' grabbed in Dansoman

A serial wedding thief, who poses as a helper at wedding ceremonies, was grabbed last Saturday for attempting to steal gifts from a newly married couple in Dansoman, Accra.

Cantonment police arrested the young woman, who is believed to be in her thirties, after she allegedly stole gift envelops from another couple a few weeks prior to Saturday's incident.

The 'wedding thief' allegedly stuffed the envelops into her bag and attempted to take off from the event grounds, but one of her previous victims identified her, caused her arrest and sent her to the police in Cantonment.

Salormey Boamah, who had been assigned to the gift table with another colleague in the previous theft, recalled the young woman just joined them at the table and busied herself with the task at hand.

She said because she did not know a lot of people at the ceremony, she considered the 'wedding thief' to be part of the families of the couple and allowed her to take the gift envelopes.

"At the end of the programme as we were packing the things into the car this lady just vanished...before we realised, she has taken all the envelopes away," she recounted to Joy News.

However, Salormey Boamah said a friend at the wedding ceremony in Dansoman, who had also seen the alleged thief, sent her a message through WhatsApp that the young woman was at yet another wedding trying to steal from the couple.

She said she immediately got to the wedding grounds and with the help of friends they dragged the young woman into her car.

The alleged thief was then sent to the Police in Cantonments who have begun investigations.

Another of her alleged victims, Linda Botwe, who was also at the Dansoman wedding told Joy News during her own wedding, she and her husband were denied the numerous gift envelopes presented by friends and family to them.

"I thought maybe she is a family member of my husband and [when I asked her] he said no but it didn't really occur to us to call someone to find out who she [wedding thief] really is, so we left it," she said.

But she said random pictures taken by friends at the wedding ceremony captured her [wedding thief] - and she has since kept a picture of the 'wedding thief' on her phone.