The hole the burglar made to gain access to the R5 Price Beat shop in Klipfontein.
A burglar caused some havoc when he broke into R5 Price Beat in the early hours of the morning.
The burglary occurred on March 17 at about 05:40, he made his way up the burglar proofing and broke a hole into the roof, then crawled along the roof of the business and made another whole which he used to gain access to the store.
Dust fell first from the roof then there was a moment of pause as if the burglar was waiting for the security alarm to go off, which it didn’t.
He then dropped down to the ground and proceeded to leopard crawl his way to the first counter, avoiding the security eyes.
He searched the first till, there was no money being kept in the toll so he started searching the area around the till for anything of value, he had no luck and once again got on all fours making his way to the second counter where again he found disappointment in the empty till.
“We don’t keep petty cash in the shop overnight,” said Mr Jurgens Potgieter, store manager.
Without any success, the burglar decided to steal a money tin used for collecting small change. He then grabbed a large bag from under the counter and started filling it with perfumes that were on one of the stands.
According to surveillance footage the burglar was busy for at least 15 minutes. In his attempt to climb back up into the roof the burglar caused even more damage to the business.
“We got to the shop in the morning to find a large mess, everyone worked together to clean up the shop, Max Lewis helped me in fixing the greeting cards shelf, which was badly damaged when the burglar climbed back up into the roof,” said Potgieter.
The following morning Potgieter had a hunch to have a drive around the area in the early hours of the morning and he spotted the suspect, still wearing the clothes he had on during the burglary, and an accomplice in the vicinity of O’Grady’s.
He contacted the security company and with them made a citizen’s arrest, police were later called to the scene and the suspect was charged with business burglary.
“Thanks to Jurgens and everyone that got involved and aided in the arrest, it’s good that the thief got what was coming to him,” said Ms Wilna Botha, store owner.
Watch a video of the burglary HERE:
