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I WOULD like to commend the fast reaction of the detectives of Muizenberg Police Station on the arrest of a housebreaker.

We live in Marina Da Gama, which, due to its proximity to some of the poorer areas of the Cape, is under constant siege from criminal elements. Resident complacency has prevented numerous attempts to get a security solution off the ground, which means that we have become easy pickings for the petty thieves preying on the area. On Cannon Island alone, which has some 50 houses, the Chubb patrol officer report-ed that they attend to an average of two to three incidents a week. Statistically this means that each resident will be broken into every 4,3 months.

Our latest incident occurred on 14 February and on this occasion (the third incident in as many months) we went outside to get our wetsuits, which had been hanging on clothes horse on the back veranda, only to discover that they where missing. On doing a check we discovered further that the lifejackets that we keep in a plastic bin for the children's water activities were also missing. Our back garden leads onto the water and as we have an electric fence around the perimeter, we could only assume that the thief had gained access through a servitude that runs down the side of our property to the water.

We reported the incident to the Muizenberg Police Station that evening, with little hope of recovering our goods and only for the sake of obtaining yet another case number to feed to the insurance company (who at this stage are possibly going to blacklist us).

On Wednesday, 15 February, we took the kids to a second-hand sports shop in Claremont to replace the wetsuits, and lo and behold, there was our property on display in the shop. After identifying the items, the shop owner was happy to hand the items back as well as provide the police with a statement with details of the person who had sold the stolen items to him.

On returning to Muizenberg Police Station, armed with the whereabouts of the stolen goods and information on the person who sold them, I was interviewed by Sergeant Kasper and Constable Tolbadi, who promised action.

The following day I was contacted by Sergeant Kasper, who informed me that they had arrested the suspect (a Hillview resident) at 03:00 that morning. The suspect has five convictions of housebreaking and theft against his name and is known to the police.

My faith is restored in the police service after this incident and I would like to thank the Muizenberg Police Station for the priority that they put on this relatively minor incident as well as the speed with which they reacted to put this criminal in front of the Magistrate.

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