It's curtains for 'Showgirl'
2003-05-08 21:59
Martina Smit
Johannesburg - A homeless young man stole a right orange tow truck named Showgirl outside McDonald's in Main Road, Melville in Johannesburg on Thursday morning.
He raced over an island in the busy road, flattened a lamp post and overturned the vehicle before it came to a halt on its roof.
Showgirl's driver Andre van Wyk had parked outside the fast food outlet about 10.30 to use the toilet.
"I wasn't gone five minutes when a bunch of street kids rushed in to tell me my truck was lying on its roof in the road.
The thief had vanished.
Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said no other vehicles were damaged in the incident. But Chantal Nel of Main Reef Towing, the company which owns Showgirl, said the R60 000 truck was a write-off.
Van Wyk and his colleagues usually park in Plantation Drive west of Main Road. He said they regularly paid the street kids who lived in a nearby tree-house to wash their tow trucks.
In fact, the homeless man who stole Showgirl had helped wash her earlier that morning, he added.
"First he washed her, then he took her for a test drive."
Nel promised the street kids R500 if they tracked down their mate. Four hours later they pointed out his hiding place in a tunnel in Industria to drivers Shane and Des Williams.
They arrested him and took him to Sophiatown police station.
Johannesburg police spokesperson Captain Mashadi Selepe confirmed a 23-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the incident.
- Beeld