A South African news-site reports on "building hijackers" who stick up an empty building's rent-a-cops, then take over and fill the building with innocent tenants, collecting rent until the real cops show up to evict them.
They demand an up-front deposit, so make R300 000 in just the first month
The syndicate, which is highly organised, monitors all the empty buildings around the inner city. It then sends in bus-loads of armed gangs into vacant buildings, threaten guards with firearms, then starts renting rooms out at between R500 and R600 a month.They collect rent for six to eight months knowing that the legal system is slow and, by the time the owners obtain eviction orders, they have enjoyed the benefits of the rents. They then simply walk away, leaving the tenants on the streets.
(Thanks, Fixer!)
