When a Mbombela advocate had six of his coveted rugby tickets and his new laptop stolen, a sting operation to get them back was set into motion, when a family member found his tickets advertised on a Facebook group.

Victor Kruger was over the moon on July 22 when he got six rugby tickets for him and his family for the Springboks vs All Blacks game at Mbombela Stadium this Saturday.

After acquiring the tickets, Kruger immediately snapped a pic and sent it to his family WhatsApp group, not knowing at the time that in a few hours, his tickets would be gone. However, the photo he took would also be the key to tracing the alleged ticket thief.

“I put the tickets in my laptop bag, then went to a local pub for a drink with a colleague at about 17:00. When I left at 20:00, I saw the window of my bakkie had been smashed and my laptop bag with the tickets and new laptop was gone.”

Kruger says he was devastated, and when he asked Computicket if anything could be done to get them back, he was told the tickets could possibly be reprinted, but that getting into the game would be on a first come, first served basis.

A family friend of Kruger’s, Bianca Landsberg, whom one of the six tickets had been purchased for, says she was browsing Facebook on Monday July 25 when she came across a post on the Facebook group *NELSPRUITERS* on which a man was selling six R1 000 rugby tickets for R1 500 each.

After looking at the photos of the tickets Kruger had sent her and comparing them with the post, she realised they were in fact the same ones.

“I didn’t even tell Victor I had found them, I just sent the guy a message asking if they were still available. I didn’t want anyone else to buy stolen tickets,” says Landsberg.

After the alleged thief confirmed the tickets were still available, she called Kruger to let him know, who then called Albert Gryvenstein of Bossies Community Justice in the hopes of setting up a sting operation.

Gryvenstein set up the operation, calling in Callen Herbst of AG Solutions to assist.

Herbst contacted Securicon Lowveld and another private security company owned by Phillip Vilikazi to act as backup.

The plan was for Landsberg to meet with the alleged ticket thief at Absa Square later that afternoon, and when the man handed the tickets over to Landsberg, that would be when the security companies would move in to make the arrest.

Kruger had in the meantime contacted the Nelspruit police, who said they liked the sting operation plan, and that as soon as the man had been caught, they had to call them to officially arrest him and take him into custody.

The man showed up and Landsberg met with him.

She says she was nervous, but luckily everything went according to plan, and shortly after the man had handed over four of the six rugby tickets, AG Solutions moved in to arrest him.

When the alleged thief was searched, the remaining two tickets were found in his possession. The laptop has not yet been recovered.

The police were called, and a case was opened.

“I am very impressed with everyone involved in the operation. I haven’t gotten my laptop back, but I am so glad we have the tickets. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that the Lowveld will never have again,” says Kruger.

Landsberg says she is ecstatic that they were able to get the tickets back, and that the man who had tried to sell them was brought to book.

It is believed there might have been a second man involved who may have given the tickets to the individual who was arrested on July 25, however, this cannot be confirmed and there is no trace of him.

Mpumalanga’s National Prosecuting Authority’s spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, says Themba Bhululu Sishaba appeared in court on charges of possession of stolen property and was granted bail of R800. She says the matter has been postponed to August 26.