Two suspected copper cable thieves have been taken out of circulation thanks to three eagle-eyed policemen who thought there was something fishy about a bakkie they spotted during an early morning patrol.
The Bothasig officers were patrolling the N7 in the direction of Cape Town, on Wednesday June 22, at about 5am, when they spotted a heavily-laden silver Colt bakkie, with a tarpaulin covering the back.
Acting on a hunch that the vehicle might be carrying poached abalone, Warrant Officer Johan Kotze and constables Cello Mcutshenge and Andrew Simmer tried to pull the driver over, but he sped off. They chased the bakkie from the N7 to the N1 and pulled it over close to the intersection of the R300 and the Stellenbosch Arterial Road.
As the bakkie’s three occupants piled out, one of them shot at the officers, who still managed to arrest two of them.
When they searched the bakkie, instead of abalone, they found about 750kg of stolen Eskom cables. Both suspects face charges of attempted murder and possession of presumed stolen property.
* A policeman arrested a 26-year-old Dunoon man for robbing a woman of her cellphone at De Grendel shopping centre, in Bothasig, on Tuesday June 21.
Warrant Officer Dean Newman was at the shopping centre when he heard a woman screaming for help and dashed to her aid.
“The shocked woman informed him that a suspect had grabbed her cell phone while she was waiting in her vehicle.
“She pointed out the suspect who was running away from the scene,” said Warrant Officer Jaqcues Mostert spokesperson for Bothasig police.
Warrant Officer Newman caught the man on a nearby field and recovered the woman’s phone.
* Bothasig police arrested two Dunoon men, aged 37 and 42, for robbing a man at gunpoint of his cellphone, shoes and a ring on a field in Midwood Street, on Sunday June 19.
The victim told officers who came to his aid that he had seen the robbers before in Dunoon. He gave the police a very detailed description of the men.
Officers, under the leadership of Warrant Officer Dean Newman and Warrant Officer Gavin Ford, blocked off the N7 from Richwood and also patrolled the N7.
Officer Newman and Constable Jonathan Kriel noticed a pedestrian on the N7 fitting the description of one of the suspects.
When they searched him, they found a ring on his finger, which they identified as possible stolen property. The victim later identified the ring as his. Police arrested a second man two days later.
* Table View Police arrested 55 people from Friday June 24 to midnight on Sunday June 26.
A 35-year-old man was arrested for drunk driving. Eighteen people were arrested for being drunk in public and seven were arrested for theft.
A man and a woman were arrested for being in possession of stolen property.
Twenty-four people, aged between 22 and 35, were arrested for being in possession of drugs, including tik, dagga, and mandrax, and drug paraphernalia.
