South African Criminals Use Donkeys To Smuggle Stolen Car

South African police have announced that they have stopped a group of criminals who were attempting to smuggle a luxury car into Zimbabwe - by towing it across the Limpopo River using donkeys.

The thieves had placed sheet metal underneath automobile and then attached pulleys to it, which were in turn tied to donkeys and pulled in the direction of Zimbabwe. The donkeys were recovered without injury.

As reported by the BBC, Police Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said: "The suspects were using donkeys to pull the car across the river' but our members were just in time to pounce on them after the donkeys were apparently no longer able to pull it through the sand."

The car, a Mercedes Benz C220 was eventually removed from the bed of the river close to the town of Musina, just a few miles from the South African border with Zimbabwe in the country's far north. The Limpopo River forms the natural boundary between South Africa to the south and Zimbabwe to the north.

The suspects are reported by local police as having fled from the car and ran towards the Zimbabwean side of the border. An investigation is taking place into whether the thieves are working in a syndicate.

Such attempted thefts are not as unusual as one might expect. In December last year, a luxury car stolen in Durban, a thousand kilometres from the border at Musina, was recovered after being taken towards the border in similar circumstances.

Usually, the traffic on the border is in the opposite direction. Illegal immigrants regularly enter South Africa from impoverished Zimbabwe in search of work and better opportunities.

The BBC's Pumza Fihlani, based in Johannesburg, thinks that the unusual method of delivering the stolen car to Zimbabwe might have had something to do with a tracking device installed within the car.

According to Mr Fihlani, while it might have been far easier to simply drive the vehicle into Zimbabwe, firing up the engine turns on the tracking device, which in turn reports the car's whereabouts to the police, if the owner has reported it stolen.

Thus, dragging the car across the border allows it to be moved beyond the jurisdiction of the South African police, at which point they are powerless to intervene to retrieve the vehicle.