{A robber pounced on Methodist Church members on Saturday at Mpandawana Growth Point in Masvingo and took away their mobile phones and cash.}<\/p>\n
Police said the robber sneaked into Mpandawana Methodist Church through a broken window and robbed the worshippers gathered for an all-night prayer. The incident occurred around 2am.<\/p>\n
Masvingo police spokesperson Inspector Peter Zhanero said the robber was armed with a machete and a knife and threatened his victims with death if they raised alarm.<\/p>\n
The robber vanished with six Nokia cellphones, US$40 and a handbag. Police have since launched a manhunt and are appealing to anyone with information to assist them with investigations to come forward.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, thieves have been stealing valuables from members of the congregation during church services in Harare.<\/p>\n
Pastor Berry Dambaza of Upper Room Ministries, a local Pentecostal church, said they were forced to tighten security during their services.<\/p>\n
“We had a serious problem a few years ago. At one point we set a trap and we were surprised that it was a respected member of the church who was responsible for the thefts. She used her children to steal handbags and cell phones in the church,” he said.<\/p>\n
After police arrested the suspect, she left the church.<\/p>\n
“In another case a parishioner directed a child to collect a handbag that belonged to another, saying it was hers. We have had a lot of these cases and it appears our church is being targeted,” Pastor Dambaza said.<\/p>\n
There are fears that gangs are targeting church services across the city.<\/p>\n
“This is particularly disturbing because there could be a syndicate operating in the area. Earlier this year, we recovered some stolen items and among them was a phone which we traced to a church in Westgate. The owner confirmed that the phone had been stolen during a service,” said a local policeman.<\/p>\n
Similar reports of theft have been reported at a mosque in Mbare. As a requirement, Muslims take off their shoes and leave them outside the mosque during their services.<\/p>\n
Myzimbabwe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{A robber pounced on Methodist Church members on Saturday at Mpandawana Growth Point in Masvingo and took away their mobile phones and cash.} Police said the robber sneaked into Mpandawana Methodist Church through a broken window and robbed the worshippers gathered for an all-night prayer. The incident occurred around 2am. Masvingo police spokesperson Inspector Peter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000049506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-11668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000049506,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11668.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000049506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11668"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=11668"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=11668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}