Modern day cowboy fights crime in his suburb

With his trusty cameras, he apprehends criminals in Westdene one by one.

Westdene resident Frikkie Botes isn’t boasting about this. Last week on 19 May, Botes single-handedly caught an alleged robber, and managed to recover four stolen laptops and cellphones from him.

“The alarm next door went off,” Botes recounted on Monday. “A guy with a bag on his shoulder jumped over the wall and I saw him run down the street corner through my cameras on the street. I set off after him. He pulled a knife on me, but I had my own, and I countered him. He dropped the bag and ran. There were four laptops inside it.”

Botes had assumed that the laptops were his neighbours’. “I called them, but the stolen goods weren’t theirs. It turned out students in Perth Street had been tied up inside their home and robbed. The laptops were theirs, and had been stolen five hours ago.”

Apparently, the robber had been hiding away in the neighbour’s garden for five hours before making a break for it and encountering Botes.

“I thought it was more important to recover the laptops, otherwise some other well-meaning citizen might have come by and taken them,” Botes explained. “So he got away.”

A couple of pupils from Hoërskool Vorentoe also gave chase, but the criminal held them at bay with his knife and got away.

“But we have the footage of the culprit on my cameras. It’s on my site,” Botes said.

“The students were really happy to recover their stolen goods,” he said, looking pleased.

“This guy came here and actually broke off our security gate. One of my housemates opened her door to see what was happening,” Thulisiwe Malinga, who lives on the property that was robbed, recounted. “He pushed her into her room, tied her up and started taking her valuables. He also tied another girl up and took her stuff. Late in the afternoon Mr Frikkie arrived and told us that he had retrieved some of the stolen items. We as students are very greatful.”

Hazel Zee was one of the students the alleged criminal had tied up. “He took all my valuables and then put them in his bag,” Zee said on Facebook. “I would advise other students to arm themselves with something they can use to defend themselves, cause I honestly felt so helpless that day. I would also advise landlords to put panic buttons and security cameras on their properties.”

She thanked Botes profusely. “Thank you so much sir, you are doing a great job in this community.”

Botes is no stranger to apprehending criminals, and worked as a detective before retiring. Some, he said, particularly the Westdene Resident’s Association, like to refer to him as a vigilante or a cowboy.

But he happens to be a very effective cowboy – with the help of the cameras he has installed in his street, and his Facebook site CROW(Concerned Residents of Westdene), he has apprehended seven criminals in the past year.

“The community is fed up with the crime, and more people want to start taking the law into their own hands,” Botes said.

He implored people to be more proactive. “Install cameras on your street. Once a criminal gets into your house he’s won, but if you can catch him on the street, you’ve got the upper-hand.”

He also suggested that people join and start up Facebook sites like CROW, where residents band together and inform the community on criminal sightings and suspicious happenings. This way, everyone can be alert and band together, and crime can be reduced.

Details: facebook.com/crow.westdene