Metro police, with the help of the community, recently arrested three men in connection with the train tracks theft at the plots near Zandfontein.
Three residents at the Leoka Villa plots near Zandfontein played a major role in helping with the arrest.
According to one of the residents, Wickus Scheepers, him and his neighbours Hennie en Eddie de Beer have been keeping an eye on the theft of train tracks in their area for a while.
“On Saturday we decided we are going to watch the tracks because we have noticed that there were theft of train tracks. After keeping watch and seeing a loaded truck, we called police, metro police and the community policing forum (CPF) for assistance,” said Scheepers.
He said during the night, the alleged thieves used a different route than usual. There were two trucks which were later caught up with.
“We have heard residents talking about train tracks being stolen, but nobody saw the people who were stealing it, so we decided to follow up. We have been experiencing this problem for years now. People come in the night, cut the train tracks and load them onto their trucks,” explained Scheepers.
He added the problem of stolen train tracks spread as far as Swartspruit.
Metro police spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said their on-duty officers received information of a truck loaded with train tracks.
“The officers followed up on the information and on their way to the scene, they stopped a truck in Van der Hoff Road which were loaded with train tracks.”
Mahamba said upon further investigation, the officers later found another abandoned truck in bushes in the area, also loaded with train tracks.
“On investigation, we identified the owner of the two trucks and he and two of his drivers were arrested. The street value of the train tracks, according to Transnet, is R236 000,” said Mahamba.
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