A Mapogo Security reaction officer recently caught a suspect red-handed, stealing metal from a railway line in Homelake.
Riaan Snyman, the Mapogo reaction officer, said the incident took place on the evening of Saturday, 10 September.
Snyman explained that his employers received a call-in from a concerned client after he’d heared knocking noises coming from the railway line. Later, they received a panic alarm from another client who had heard the noises as well.
Once on scene, Snyman saw two men busy on the train line, but one ran away before he approached them. When he confronted the suspect left behind, the suspect allegedly told Snyman he was not stealing, he was just taking the metal and was within his rights to do so because he was poor.
Snyman called the police and together they went to the railway office to establish the value of the metal removed from the line. This was not disclosed, but the suspect was later arrested. It is unclear what charges the suspect will face and when he will make his first appearance in court.
Snyman said the metal taken was not in any respect light-weight – his rough estimate suggests that it weighed between 5 and 8kg.
This is not the first time Snyman has caught a suspect in the act. Earlier this year, he caught a suspect who had held up a mother and her 3-year-old child after chasing the suspect down and cornering him in a Homelake yard.
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