Copper thief caught red-handed
A suspected copper thief was apprehended when he tried to sell some cables to a scrapyard near Rocky Drift on Monday.
WHITE RIVER – Gerhard de Beer, the reaction unit operations manager at J&M Security, confirmed the incident in which Willy Zephania Mthinsi (55), was caught red-handed.
“We acted on a tip-off by the scrapyard dealer and, in a joint operation between us and the SAPS, foiled the second transaction by the unscrupulous suspect at approximately 15:00,” he said.
“The first deal was concluded by the accused at 11:00. We then waited for the suspect to return following the tip-off and, by way of entrapment, arrested the alleged thief with 75 kilograms of copper at the conclusion of his second copper transaction,” De Beer explained.
He believes that more arrests will follow, as according to him the apprehended suspect might only be the transport medium for a syndicate working in the area.
The head of visible policing in White River, Capt Julian Frank, told Lowvelder that he cannot at this stage verify if it is the work of a syndicate.
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He said a combined private investigation initiative paid off and that they requested the assistance of four members of J&M Security with the operation.
“An expert from the City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM) and the general manager for energy, Jaco Landsberg, confirmed that the copper cable is from the White River substation.
“This allowed us to arrest the suspected thief on possession of stolen property. The accused initially told us that he is a farmer from Msholozi and that he found the copper cable while out in the field with his grazing pigs,” Frank explained.
Brig Leonard Hlathi, the provincial police spokesman said in a statement, that on Monday at approximately 01:15 an employee of the CMLM alleged that he was on duty when he received a call from his supervisor stating that there was an electrical fault detected at Town North substation in White River.
They found on arrival that a cable leading from the substation was stolen.
The suspect appeared in the White River Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday and Wednesday and was remanded in custody. The matter was postponed, for a formal bail application by the accused, until January 15, Hlathi added.
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