A man tried to bribe a metro police officer with R10 000 on Wednesday after he and his accomplices were arrested for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.
According to Chief Supt Wilfed Kgasago, metro police spokesman, a look-out was given around 8.40am for a Toyota Avanza hijacked in Alexandra township earlier that morning.
The hijacked vehicle was cornered in Tembisa and all four of its male occupants arrested at 11am.
The recovery and the arrests were a joint effort by the EMPD Tembisa Precinct Commander, EMPD Loss Control & Investigations Unit members and officers from Tracker SA.
“One of the four arrested suspects produced a cool R10 000 hard cash in R100 notes and tried to bribe the metro police. He was slapped with an additional charge of bribery,” Kgasago said.
All four suspects, who are in their late thirties, three from Alexandra and one from Vosloorus, were charged with possession of a stolen vehicle at the Tembisa Police Station.
On the same day the metro police recovered a truck belonging to a Pakistani shop owner within half an hour after it had been hijacked.
The Pakistani businessman was confronted by an unknown number of assailants at 2.30pm. They hijacked his truck which was fully-laden with stock destined for his shop.
The swift action of the metro police led to the recovery of the truck at 2.49pm in Winnie Mandela.
“Although the officers’ response was quick it was unfortunately not quick enough to recover the stock which is believed to have been transferred into another vehicle or off-loaded into a house around the area,” Kgasago said.
At 3pm in Rabie Ridge, an Isuzu LDV bakkie belonging to a plumbing company was hijacked but the metro police and Tracker SA officers were able to recover the abandoned vehicle ten minutes later in Kite Street, Rabie Ridge.
