Domestic Help ‘Robs’ Boss 11 Days After Employment

A househelp, Ben Peters, has been apprehended by the police for allegedly breaking into his boss’ room barely 11 days after he was employed.

Peters was said to have burgled the room of 73-year-old retiree Alexander Okoye and his wife Njideka on the October 23, while he was employed on October 12.

According to the police, he robbed the old couple of their $5,000, Toyota Camry Saloon car, six packet shirts and a Motorola android phone.

Police spokesman Chike Oti said the couple petitoned the Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, who directed the command’s Human Rights unit to investigate and arrest the culprit.

“On December 18, barely two months after the incident, the said Ben Peters was arrested from a hideout in Agege, Lagos and some of the stolen items recovered from him.

“Investigation so far revealed, that his real name is Usang Bassey Effiong and not Ben Peters as he made his employers to believe.

“The suspect has confessed how he committed the crime. He narrated that he noted where Mr. Okoye usually hid his key to the bedroom. To gain access to it, he needed to duplicate the living room key; so he went ahead and made a copy of the living room key.

“It was on October 23, that he made up his mind to break into the couple’s bedroom. And to do so undetected, he disconnected the CCTV camera that would have recorded his activities, picked up the bedroom key and constructively broke into the couple’s room, stole their valuables and thereafter, drove off with their car.

“The suspect added that robbing the couple was easy for him because the househelp they dismissed before employing him, one Matthew Johnson Abam, was a member of his thieving syndicate and he had furnished him with relevant information about the couple even before he came to live with them.

“The CP urges employers of domestic servants to be painstaking in carrying out background checks on them to minimise situations whereby these unverified servants take advantage of employers.

“Both suspects are currently undergoing interrogation with a view to helping the Police, arrest their partners in crime and recover the stolen items,” said Oti in a statement on Thursday.