Members of the Ivory Park SAPS crime prevention team have in the early hours of October 12 recovered a motor vehicle full of suspected stolen property, which included four pistols.
According to the Ivory Park SAPS communications officer, Captain Bernard Matimulane, police were responding to a complaint of a house robbery taking place in Lindokuhle, Ivory Park, and came across a Toyota Avanza with about five occupants, who, upon seeing the police van, switched off the lights and changed direction.
“Immediately after, the occupants abandoned the vehicle and started, without provocation, to shoot at the police. They fled the scene on foot. On checking the vehicle, the police found in the vehicle two plasma TVs, two microwave ovens and four pistols, three of which had magazines but none had any rounds of ammunition,” said Matimulane.
He added all the firearms had serial numbers, and it was established through these that two of the pistols are registered under dealerships in Johannesburg.
“Police are investigating the circumstance under which these firearms ended up in Ivory Park because they were not reported stolen,” said Matimulane.
The cluster commander of Ekurhuleni North SAPS, Major General Vincent Leshabane, has praised Sergeant Lydia ‘Ace’ Tlhotse and Constable Sibulelo Makhubela, the two officers involved in the recovery of the firearms.
“We would have loved to have recovered the firearms and the suspects, but we could derive comfort from the fact that these firearms will not be used to rob others,” said Leshabane.
The firearms will be taken for ballistics for further investigations and all the information will be followed up.
