LIMPOPO – THE Motetema police rescued a suspected thief from furious residents of Leeuwfontein near Sekhukhune on Sunday morning.
Residents captured and assaulted the man, who alleged broke into one of the houses on Friday morning when he thought the owners were away at work.
A woman who was sleeping in the house said she was awoken at about 07:00 when she heard strange sounds coming from one of the other rooms. She said a man opened the door to the bedroom she was sleeping in.
“When he saw there was someone in the room he ran out of the house and jumped over the wall. I was so scared when he opened the door because I didn’t know what he had in mind when he came to the house. But I recognised him from the clothes he was still wearing when he passed me on the streets on Saturday,” the woman said.
Bafana Mohlala, a resident, said when they went to the man’s home, he ran away when he recognised the car outside. “We had just parked the car when he started running away. We had not yet spoken to him. We realised he was the one who tried to break into the house when he just ran away without stopping to find out what we came to his home for.
However, the suspected thief said it was not him who tried to steal at the house but his friend.
“I was standing outside when my friend went in the house. I was checking from the street if someone was not coming. We ran away after seeing there was still someone in the house.
Francinah Aphane, the suspected thief’s grandmother, said she knew her grandson was troublesome but pleaded with the angry residents to not to harm him but to rather call the police. “He started becoming troublesome when he started using nyaope. He goes in and out of police holding cells. People who sell our kids nyaope are the ones to blame for all this,” the sobbing grandmother said.
The Motetema police took the suspect to the police holding cells and a case of attempted housebreaking was opened.
The suspect is expected to appear before court soon.
