CT 'Copperheads' strike
2009-03-19 21:17
Cape Town - Nine men were arrested for stealing railway property in Netreg, near Bishop Lavis, the City of Cape Town said on Thursday.
The city's metal theft unit, known as the "Copperheads" caught the men after one of its officers spotted them removing heavy metal fence poles next to the railway line in broad daylight, said Copperheads chair, Councillor Pieter van Dalen.
"Inspector Ezekiel Kiewiets was on a routine crime prevention patrol in the area when he noticed the men uprooting the poles.
"He immediately called his colleagues and the police for backup. As soon as they arrived on the scene, the suspects scattered in all directions," Van Dalen said.
Police gave chase and caught a 17-year-old boy with two of the poles in his possession.
They then tailed a getaway car to a house in Netreg and arrested another eight suspects.
According to Van Dalen, gangsters in Bonteheuwel and Netreg were targeting fencing poles at railway stations, which are then sold for scrap to fund their drug addictions.
He said that a contractor employed to remove the poles and to put up palisade fencing was threatened by gangsters to hand over the poles to them.
"These three metre long poles ...weigh 100kg each and are planted about one metre deep into concrete."
He said 300 poles were stolen since Tuesday, and 108 were recovered at a shop in Bonteheuwel.
The owner of the shop was in police custody.
"Poles are still being stolen as we speak...the community is now of the opinion that they have permission to steal them," he said.
- SAPA