Car brake fluid used to spike drinks during beer binges

An investigation by the Midweek Sun around Francistown has established that petty criminals more especially school drop-outs use car brake fluid on unsuspecting victims during alcohol drinking binges in various bars in the townships of Francistown.

After drinking a spiked drink, a person can easily fall prey to being robbed and or sexually abused while his/her inhibitions, just like the memories, disappear almost totally. When a drink is spiked, it means that a substance (legal or illegal) is poured into it without the permission or knowledge of the drinker. These days anything is used to spike drinks but the car oil seems to have been embraced dearly by users who claim that it makes victims get drunk far quicker than the norm and ‘fail to apply their brakes,’  “(excuse the pun).

It has also emerged that, a number of rape cases have gone unreported as most of the victims go into deep sleep and suffer temporary memory blackout. This is common in Monarch, Blue Town, Somerset and Kgaphamadi locations. A petty thief, who preferred to remain anonymous and is residing in Blue Town revealed that nowadays the law is very tough on criminals hence they have opted to drowse their victims with car brake fluid as most of the cases will then go unreported due to lack of evidence.

“We normally pour some quantity of the brake fluid inside small bottles not easy to be detected by our victims. Once we enter a bar or any drinking spot, we organise ourselves into a coordinating gang of both males and females with an intent to drowse victims and easily rob them of their belongings. In our syndicate, beautiful girls come handy as they are the ones who inform us about victims loaded with cash as men both married and unmarried like to chase young girls at bars and clubs, “he said.

He explained that once a victim is identified, a pretty young girl will be used as bait to spike the victim’s drink unnoticed. Once the girl has spiked the drink, the victim will be lured to change drinking spots knowing very well that within a very short space of time the victim will sleep heavily making it easy for the thieves to take money and other valuables undetected. Once they are through with a victim they change drinking spots and continue their doping spree until the wee hours of the morning when they knock off to rest. A Monarch petty criminal who introduced himself as Trompies differed with the first source. He said that in their syndicate they operate as males only.

“A few drops of brake fluid thrown inside a beer container or any drink normally result in the victim getting over drunk thereby taking a very deep nap in the process making it easy for us to search them undisturbed. It is not every one that we target as we normally target those loaded with cash after our thorough nocturnal surveillance in bars. If there are no available victims, close friends with money can always be targeted and after they are tranquillised, they are searched and safely put to bed only for them to wake up with a heavy head, an empty purse plus non-remembrance of the previous night’s events,” Trompies explained.

According to the Wikipedia Encyclopaedia, car brake fluid contains an alcoholic chemical known as ethylene glycol which can cause kidney failure, heavy intoxication followed by memory lapse and non-coordination of the central nervous system as well as high blood pressure. It continues that if consumed in large quantities, it can result in death as the chemical affects many vital body organs.

A form five school drop-out who resides in Somerset Extension (names withheld) informed this publication that he was roped into the brake fluid syndicate as a student at Francistown Senior Secondary by a friend who by then had dropped out of school to be a petty thief. “As students, we will normally invite our female school mates to our places over the weekend where beer drinking and drugs become the order of the day. Once we start drinking, we spike their drinks after which we ended up having unprotected sex with them as they would be unaware of what is taking place due to the effects of the brake fluid.

Even if they notice something unusual the following day, it is hard for them to report as they eventually become willing girlfriends won through drugging and rape.

At bars, it is easy to drug women who mostly have the penchant for drinking beer ka go “tshwara spoko”. Once you have made them drunk, it is easy for one to sexually abuse them as they will be temporarily unconscious of everything until the brake fluid is erased in their systems,” he said.

Francistown Central Station commander Lebalang Maniki admitted that there are instances when his police officers attend to cases of theft in which victims were robbed while asleep only to remember nothing to use as evidence when police trace the suspects.

“People are advised to guard their beers in bars as there are some undesirable elements that go to bars with an aim to spike, rob and rape. Don’t even trust your friend with your drink as they might become careless during your absence. If one wants to be completely safe from spiking, they should throw away the drinks they left open when they went to the toilet,” he said.