FOUR men who were allegedly involved in a business breaking in Pinetown, where items worth R406 000 were stolen, were arrested at the weekend.
It is alleged that on Wednesday morning, 6 January, the robbers broke into a Truck and Plant Engineering company which repairs and manufactures parts for trucks and earthmoving equipment in Pinetown.
According to private investigator, Peter Williams, the robbers broke the window and disabled the alarms by cutting the wires. “Among the stolen goods was three propellers of which two of them cost R95 000 each.
“The robbers escaped with various tools, car and truck parts and brass gear. Williams said they recovered information on the whereabouts of the goods and the men.”We proceeded to Clermont with the police on Friday, 8 January, where we found two men who were grinding one of the propellers.
“One man was arrested and the second one managed to flee the scene,” he said. The man that escaped was arrested on Saturday, 9 January, and two others were arrested later in the day.
“The stolen goods were found in different scrapyards around Pinetown and two items were found at a scrapyard in Pietermaritzburg. Brass gears worth about R30 000 were sold for R 1 855 at one of the scrapyards,” he added.
Co-owner of the company, Richard Hoffmann-Jensen said they were very disturbed by this break in as expensive items were stolen and they thanked the police and Peter Williams for their swift action.
“The ship propellers were for a floating restaurant in Durban and were brought here for modification.”Items worth R330 000 have since been recovered,” he said.
Pinetown SAPS communications officer, Lt Bongumusa Manqele, said two of the men who were arrested were released as there was not enough evidence. “Two others, aged 41 and 42 appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on 11 January 2015 for house breaking. “It is alleged that on Wednesday, 6 January, the suspects broke into an engineering company in Devon Road, Pinetown, and stole truck and ship equipment to the value of R406,000.
“On Saturday, 9 January, Pinetown detectives received information about the whereabouts of the suspects. The detectives proceeded to a house in Clermont where they found the men busy grinding some of the stolen items.
“Other stolen items were recovered at different scrapyards in Pinetown where they were allegedly sold by the men,” he said.
