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By News24 Wire

Wire Service


Desperate crimes: Two nabbed for toilet paper theft in Durban

The suspects were flushed out by eThekwini police, failing to adhere to the saying: 'when you've got to go, you've got to go'.


Durban police are on a roll after they arrested two men in connection with the theft of eThekwini Municipality property – over 3450 rolls of toilet paper.

Police officers from the eThekwini Outer North Cluster Task Team conducted an operation in Verulam and Phoenix on Thursday, which led to the recovery of the 72 bales of toilet paper belonging to the eThekwini municipality.

Officers first visited a supermarket on Wick Street in Verulam, where they confiscated 59 bales of toilet paper and arrested a 35-year-old man. “He was charged for being in possession of suspected stolen property.

During the investigation it was discovered that the suspect bought the property in Phoenix,” said provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker.

Officers then visited Sastri Park in Phoenix where the second suspect was flushed out and police seized an additional 13 bales of toilet paper.

The 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of suspected stolen property. During the same operation, a 23-year-old was arrested after 35 boxes of illicit cigarettes were found and confiscated.

But this is not the first time police pulled the plug on municipal toilet paper theft: Earlier this month two men were arrested after they were found with more than 150 bales of municipal toilet paper, at a shop in Umgeni,  according to SowetanLIVE.

It was unclear how the men had acquired the toilet paper.

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