Police have rejected as a hoax an email detailing how women are raped in mall toilets, Superintendent Eugene Opperman said on Tuesday.
”The author of the document bearing a fictitious name of ‘Ian Roberts’ is not a member of the South African Police Service [SAPS] and is indeed unknown to the SAPS,” Opperman said.
He said the email claims that women are being raped and robbed of their valuables and clothing while in mall restrooms.
”With what is being called amazing regularity, victims of this new crime wave have been found walking out of shopping-mall restrooms completely naked,” says the email, which police have in their possession.
The email says that rapists wait in a cubicle until there is only one woman left in the restroom. They then put an ”out of order” sign on the main door, stand up on the toilet seat and point a handgun into the next stall.
The woman’s mouth and hands are then bound before she is raped and robbed. She is then forced to remove all her clothing and kick it under the stall door.
”It usually takes an hour or two for the woman to work up the nerve to leave the restroom in the nude, giving the criminal ample time to make his getaway,” the hoax email says.
The email goes on to report which malls have been targeted and the number of attacks to date. Target areas allegedly include Gateway Mall and the Pavilion in KwaZulu-Natal; and Sandton, Cresta, Southgate and The Glen malls in Gauteng.
”The email which is published on the web … is nothing near the SAPS’s approved correspondence format,” Opperman said, adding that no such incidences have been reported and the email has no postal address or any contact details.
”The public is urged to immediately report anyone who engages in any kind of hoax of a similar kind distributed via SMS or email,” he said. — Sapa