The Ghana Police Service has reportedly retrieved a box and a bag filled with stolen phones at Gbawe in the Weija-Gbawe Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
As much as Ghanaians and persons from the diaspora came flooding the streets of Accra for the Christmas festivities, so did the pickpockets and thieves come out to hunt.
Despite the fun and thrill recorded at the various events held during this year’s Christmas, some revelers, unfortunately, became victims of thieves and lost valuables including mobile phones.
According to a Twitter user, @Solometer1, he led a group of 40 attendees to an event where four of his guests lost their phones to pickpockets and snatchers.
“So my group of 40 arrived El Wak around 10pm. We crossed the road from the lands commission building and walked to the first entrance where there were lots of people mostly with no tickets. Soon as we got near the crowd a huge fight broke out between one guy and the security.
“They started pushing the guy back with force almost causing a stampede and in that moment when people were trying to find their stamina their phones were gone. We later traced one of them around the venue but must have seen us looking around n bolted. Within minutes phone was at Jamestown. I suspect they used a motorbike,” he wrote in a thread.
But in a subsequent thread, he reported that after involving the police, one of the phones was traced to Gbawe where a cache of stolen phones was discovered in the room phone seller.
“So we traced 1 of our missing fones 2 mallam Gbawe. We involved police & a bag + box of fones was discovered in d room of a phone seller. He has refused 2 show up but all d phones have bn moved 2 Gbawe LAFA police station. Come there tomorrow if u lost a fone at #afrochella2022 [SIC]," he added.
The post on Twitter is accompanied by videos showing dozens of mobile phones packed in a travelling bag and a chop box.
Meanwhile, American rapper, Meek Mill who was billed to perform at the Afronation Festival on December 29, 2022, announced during his performance that he lost his phone to pickpockets while making his way to the event grounds.
However, the Ghana Police Service in a statement barely 24 hours later released a statement saying it had recovered the phone and arrested one suspect.
This box is filled to the brim with iPhones. pic.twitter.com/9RKuChw68b
— ACCRA EVENT PLUG ???????? (@solometer1) December 30, 2022
So we traced 1 of our missing fones 2 mallam Gbawe. We involved police & a bag + box of fones was discovered in d room of a phone seller. He has refused 2 show up but all d phones have bn moved 2 Gbawe LAFA police station. Come there tomorrow if u lost a fone at #afrochella2022 pic.twitter.com/7fNjWyXyhl
— ACCRA EVENT PLUG ???????? (@solometer1) December 30, 2022