Homeward bound – the travelling gazebo

A gazebo that was stolen from a Johannesburg based running club at their hotel in Durban, two days before last year’s Comrades Marathon, has been recovered in Ballito.

Thanks to a vigilant young girl and Umhlali SAPS’ Lt Col Dieter Fittkau, the gazebo will soon be back home with the Randburg Harriers running club.

“Our club trailer was broken into and a whole lot of our stuff, including the gazebo and all our race day nutritional supplies, were stolen,” said club chairman John Neil.

He said club members spotted the expensive stainless steel gazebo earlier this year at the Midmar Mile. Unfortunately the people using the gazebo at the time became aggressive when they were confronted and the members had to back down.

“One of our former runners’ daughter, now living in Ballito, recognised the gazebo at the Ballito Pro and alerted her mother, who called the police,” said Neil.

Umhlali SAPS’ Lt Col Dieter Fittkau said the people using the gazebo had a plausible excuse for having it and he decided to use his discretion and only confiscated the gazebo after the Ballito Pro.

“I am quite amazed,” said Neil.

He said the club was grateful to have their gazebo back.

“We purposefully bought an expensive gazebo that could handle the wear and tear of being used almost every weekend at the races,” he said.

The club thanked Fittkau and community for getting their gazebo back to them.