Seven suspects were recently caught in the act while stealing power cables and a transformer to the value of almost R2m in Florida, Roodepoort.

On June 11 at about 14:00 the Johannesburg Flying Squad received information about a truck loading cables at a business premises in Florida.

The team was mobilised swiftly and suspects were cornered on the premises.

Police discovered that there were cables already on a truck and more cables as well as a transformer were still to be loaded.

Further investigations indicated that the thugs had rented a truck with a crane to load the cables and transformer, and it was seized for being used in a crime.

Seven suspects that included five Zimbabwean nationals, one Mozambican and a South African were arrested while R1.5m worth of cable and a transformer worth R400 000 were recovered.

Colonel Amos Tsotetsi from the Florida police station confirmed that a case was opened and that the suspects will appear in court soon.

According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, power outages, often caused by cable theft, can lead to an increase in crime as properties are more vulnerable.

“It also results in high costs to replace or repair cables stolen or damaged by thieves; it further diverts resources that could have been utilised better elsewhere.

“Worst of all, however, is the potential loss of innocent lives due to electrocution, or fires as a result of exposed cables,” said Mangena.