A ring of young dog thieves and burglars has been uncovered in the Strathmore Park area.
Head Street resident, Linda Milne, stumbled across the youthful syndicate last Thursday morning after the quiet neighbourhood was disturbed by shouting and screaming.
Linda says she looked out of her window and saw a woman dressed in traditional attire berating a youth whom she was holding by the collar.
“They were standing on the pavement near Biggar Street and the woman was hitting him. I first I thought it was some kind of abuse but when I went outside and enquired, she told me that he and his friends had been going around the area stealing dogs, and had stolen dogs from her.”

These were sold for around R10 and R15 in Sibongile.

Linda called the police but they were unable to send a van around. She then called the SPCA’s Davey Naidoo and Peter Dlamini who soon arrived in the SPCA van.
“After further questioning the young man, it turned out that he and three friends have been operating for some months. Their modus operandi was to scour the area under the pretext of looking for plastic bottles, waste paper and cardboard for recycling and pocket money.
“Meantime, they were checking out which homes had dogs.
“They would then come back at night and steal the dogs. These were sold for around R10 and R15 in Sibongile. However, it appears as if they also committed housebreaking and in one incident, the young fellow admitted they had stolen a gun.”
The youth showed SPCA officials from where dogs had been stolen and they then went to Sibongile to recover a Labrador puppy that had been stolen from Reynolds Street and sold. The 13-year-old suspect was taken to the police station where, Linda hopes, further investigations will reveal the full extent of the gang’s pilfering.