RUTANA January 17th (ABP) – Theft by hypnosis, a new kind of banditry that has just occurred in Rutana province (south-east of Burundi), was perpetrated in two households of Kibinzi village, in Rutana commune, according to administrative sources.

The first theft occurred in the week of January 7 to 13, 2019 at a certain Maserege who operates as a grilled meat seller. Some criminals had heard that this man had received 300,000 BIF from the sale of his cow. At night, the man had the reflex to hide that money, but he kept on him an amount of 40,000 BIF for the needs of the next day.

Suspecting something, Mr. Maserege went to bed with a machete and a spear within his reach to defend himself in the event of an attack by bandits. He did not wake up during the night when he had promised to stay on the lookout for fear of theft. But the next morning, when he woke up, he did not find a machete or spear while he had put them at his bedside. Even all the clothes he had put on his coat rack were no longer there, and no one in the house, neither his wife with whom he slept, nor the children who were in another room next door had nothing heard.

When he left the house, he noticed all his clothes and the objects he had put on his bedside. Those criminals had taken the money he had in a pocket of one of his trousers. According to the neighbors, the thieves lulled him to sleep by hypnosis to get him his money. Fortunately, the 300,000 BIF he had acquired through the sale of his cow had been kept in a safe place.

The second robbery committed in such circumstances was perpetrated in the same village of Kibinzi and concerned a bicycle. The victim of that robbery also slept with all the members of his family when criminals broke into his house by removing the bricks one by one to make their way. They then took his bike without anyone in the house hearing them.

The people are afraid and believe that thieves would use dark magic to lull their victims to sleep.

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