Two boys aged nine and 10, were left stranded after a 36-year-old man used them to swindle a mattress dealer at Abeka Flat Top, in Accra.
The boys did not know they had been tricked by the stranger, who had asked them to accompany him to buy three mattresses.
They got to know their fate after the shop owner called in the police.
Suspect
Later, the police arrested the suspect, Eric Opoku, a former illegal miner, in a house at Mallam, in Accra, where he was looking for buyers for the three mattresses whose sizes were respectively 12, 14 and 20 inches.
Briefing journalists in Accra, the Tesano Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Edward Tetteh, said the owner of the mattress shop (name withheld) told the police that Opoku came to her shop in the company of the two boys.
He said the shop owner claimed that after buying the three mattresses, Opoku requested that he would leave the boys whom he claimed were his brothers in the shop and then return to make the payment.
According to Mr Tetteh, the shop owner said Opoku stopped a Kia truck and loaded the mattresses on it and left.
After some hours, when Opoku was not returning, the woman asked the boys to call their brother only for her to be told that they did not know him and that he had only asked them to accompany him to buy the mattresses when he met them a few metres away from the shop.
Alarmed, the shop owner said she detained the boys and stepped out to look for Opoku and fortunately saw the truck driver who was hired by Opoku.
The driver then took the shop owner to Mallam, where he had unloaded the mattresses, leading to the arrest of Opoku.
All the mattresses, valued at GH¢2,950, have been retrieved.
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