The residents of Quinn Street in Noordheuwel recently showed how beneficial it could be to know and work with your neighbours when they caught two potential gate-motor thieves.

At about 02:30 on Monday, February 7, the residents were alerted to two suspicious men in their street. After scouring the street, they managed to apprehend two suspects and hand them over to the police.

Richard Lees explained that the residents of their street decided a long time ago to look out for each other. About three years ago they started their own security WhatsApp group.

This group is for security. We share information about missing dogs, suspicious people and vehicles in our street, and when the network is down,” he explained.

There are about 43 houses on Quinn Street so there are between 70 and 80 people on their group.

On the morning of the incident one of the women on the group sent a voice message explaining that she had heard her dogs barking and when she looked out the window she saw a black vehicle in the street with two men walking behind it.

A neighbour responded that he had seen the men at his gate motor.

The neighbours went outside and found the car with only one occupant parked at the top of the street.

Richard said as they were running down the street they looked for the other two men who were spotted earlier but could not find them. While they were talking to the man in the car they heard a commotion down the street – one of the neighbours had caught one of the suspects where he was hiding against a fence behind an electricity box.

They called security and the police, and while the police were combing the area for tools that the suspects might have used, they found the second suspect hiding in a bush outside another house in the street, watching everything unfold.

The two men were arrested but the driver was not. The next day the residents found other tools that the thugs had used in their attempts to steal their gate motors.

Richard urged other communities also to start groups like theirs and said if the residents of each street would just look out for each other, the community would be safer.

The residents of Quinn Street work well together and have another community WhatsApp group as well where they support each other’s businesses and even host the occasional street braai. They also keep a watchful eye on the homes of those who are on holiday.