As crooks update their thieving strategies with devious tactics, police officers on the other hand incorporate technology in their arsenal in a bid to nab and bring them to justice.
This was the case with a Ugandan woman who got nabbed after police used a text messaging application, commonly known as WhatsApp. She was accused of using fake US dollars when carrying out her transactions.
According to police officers, based in Malindi police station, the Ugandan suspect had been moving to different hotels along the coast using fake currencies but was always elusive.
Relentless in their pursuit, the detectives formed a WhatsApp group and circulated information regarding the details of the suspect and her operations. Both the security agents and cashiers at hotels based in the Coast region were put on high alert.
A detective privy to the investigations intimated that the suspect first went to the Casino hotel in Malindi and used $150 (Ksh15,000) suspected to be fake currency.
She then went to Ocean Spot and used an unknown amount of money also in fake currency. Her luck, however, ran out at Seven Island Resort when she used $450 fake bank notes, which caught the cashier's attention.
"The cashier was quick to detect the scam and alerted the hotel management, who informed the police," the detective told journalists.
Malindi Sub-County police commander John Kemboi affirmed that the detectives arrested the suspect at the Watamu-based hotel.
"The woman was pretending to be a customer and booked a room for two days. She paid $150 using the fake money.
"We searched the suspect and recovered $900 (Ksh90,000) in $50 (Ksh5,000) notes believed to be fake," Kemboi stated. The Malindi police boss pointed out that the suspect is in Kenya illegally.
"The middle-aged woman is in the country illegally and she had toured Watamu town in the last one week. She has been moving to different hotels using fake US dollars," he acknowledged.
Cases of criminals using fake currency are on the rise, and police have been on high alert in regard to crooks who use fake currencies in a bid to dupe and con their unsuspecting victims.
