Joint action by residents, the CPF, Tshwane metro police and SAPS resulted in the arrests of three cable thieves in Valhalla in the past two weeks.
A teenager was arrested two weeks ago after the CPF received a tip-off from a resident who had spotted two men stealing cables from a lamppost in Ninow Road in Valhalla.
The CPF and the Tshwane metro police traced the two thieves to the corner of Viking and Meteor roads, close to Laerskool Swartkop but only managed to arrest one.
CPF chairperson in Valhalla Braam Rossouw said police also confiscated an already cut cable that had been left at the school.
Two more cable thieves were arrested at the weekend when residents reported them to the Wierdabrug Sector 1 CPF.
“We have two emergency numbers for the public to report anything. We received an SMS that read: ‘Please help’.”
“Two employees at a nearby church caught a cable thief at a nearby field among blue gum trees and tied him up. He was busy burning the plastic off the cables he had in his possession.”
The second cable thief was caught on Sunday morning in the Hennopspark industrial area.
He said when CPF with the Wierdabrug police, Copwatch, Hi-Risk Security and Monitor Net arrived on the scene, the man appeared to be sleeping under the influence of alcohol.
“Brand-new rolls of CCTV cables were found among empty alcohol bottles in a cart that was used by the man.”
Rossouw said it was still unclear where he got hold of the CCTV cables from.
He said these arrests were a huge breakthrough after so many thieves had slipped through their fingers.
He said during these arrests, they also obtained valuable information as to where the stolen cables were sold.
Wierdabrug police spokesperson Captain Agnes Huma confirmed one arrest.
Ward 66 councillor Ina Strijdom said she was very thankful for residents’ involvement as there had been a huge increase in cable theft.
“So far, the Tshwane metro has replaced more than 70 percent of Valhalla’s copper electricity cables with bundle conductors. It is more economically viable in the long run.”
She said the metro had already spent a lot of money replacing the copper cables, but as soon as there was a budget available, they would continue the roll-out of bundle conductors.
Strijdom thanked the SAPS, CPF, security companies and community for their effort to making Valhalla a safer place.
Also read:
Man (57) arrested for killing his wife
Two arrested for drug possession
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
