WATCH: Car thieves no match for Neighbourhood Watch

In the early hours of Thursday morning, thieves made off with the vehicle of Johann Botha, owner of Vox Telecom in Vryheid.

At 7:20am, upon discovery of the theft, Botha, who is an active patrolling member of Vryheid Neighbourhood Watch, reported the incident to Chairman of the Watch, Andrè Rheder, who immediately responded by gathering the necessary information and rallying his team together to set up a search party for the stolen 2012 GWM bakkie.

The fortunate fact that Botha’s vehicle is fitted with a tracker made recovery of the stolen bakkie much easier and the vehicle location was traced to a spot in the plantations up towards Zungwini mountain, according to the GPS coordinates.

“Luckily for Johann, he has got Tracker in his vehicle and we could see where the vehicle was travelling,” stated Rheder, who wasted no time in setting out on the search for the stolen vehicle, “so we had a good idea where to find it and headed out to the coordinates hoping to find a vehicle or a ripped out tracking unit, at least.”

Patrol Commander, Imtiaz Sahib, assisted Rheder with the search, as well as Ken Taylor, who was willing to conduct an aerial search by helicopter. Other members of the Watch assisted where they could, despite the time of the search coinciding with their daily commute to work.

“The search took us out on the Kambula road and then into the plantations up towards Zungwini mountain on the property of Horst Hellberg,” Rheder continued. “We found the vehicle hidden between the trees in the plantation…”

The canopy of the bakkie had been stolen, along with some goods from inside the vehicle and the vehicle had to be removed from its ‘hiding spot’ by JVS Towing and Recovery and transported to the workshop of Imtiaz Sahib, where the steering and ignition lock were repaired.

Botha was advised to open a case of theft for the goods stolen from the vehicle.

The Vryheid Herald caught up with Johann Botha after his ordeal. Here’s what he had to say…