Right time, right place to arrest crooks
Although she was robbed, it was this women's lucky day.
A family from Middelburg, on their way home from Mbombela, were hailed as heroes after helping to apprehend two armed robbers. The men were arrested after holding up a woman at knifepoint and stealing her phone on Thursday afternoon. The SAPS just happened to be in the vicinity and cornered the suspects when they tried to flee.
Ms Ntombi Futhi Letlape (26) was walking on the N4 near Sun One Hotel on the way to the bus stop when two men stopped her and one of them threatened her with a knife. The other searched her, grabbed her pink Nokia cellphone and they ran off.
The family from Middelburg were passing by on their way back home when they witnessed the ordeal. They stopped to help Letlape. They saw the culprits running across the highway over a grass field toward Stinkhout Crescent and chased after them in their vehicle.
They drove past a police vehicle the very same moment. Capt Pieter Smith of Mbombela Flying Squad was on his way home from a golf game when the Middelburg family and Letlape indicated to him where the suspects were running. He sped around the block to corner them in Stinkhout Crescent. They were arrested on the spot. Smith confiscated the pocket knife which they allegedly used to rob Letlape and retrieved her pink cellphone. Her SIM card had already been removed.
The police took the victim’s and eyewitnesses’ statements, while waiting for a police van to take the suspects to the police station, when one of the suspects turned to Letlape and apologised profusely.
They will appear in court next week and are expected to be charged with armed robbery.
