A joint operation between Fairland Police Station and private security companies saw the arrest of two suspects for copper theft.
This was in an effort to patrol at a high density within the community in hopes to arrest criminals and it proved successful. The suspects appeared in court earlier this month on charges of theft of copper cable.
The two suspects committed this crime at varying hours of the early morning, one was found cutting a copper cable while another was found breaking into a fuse box. They were also caught at varying times, one around 01:00 and the other at about 04:00. At the time of their initial court appearance they were not given bail.
Sergeant Michael Kgatla for the station said there is currently a high number of copper cable theft within the area and could be attributed to the fact that many of the companies installing these copper cables would, at times, leave the cables laying bare on the floor. “Criminals see this as an opportunity to steal it,” he explained, adding that companies need to come on board and assist with curbing the number of thefts by securing this material.
The number of years a suspect would serve for this crime depends on how many crimes of this nature the station can link them to. However, linking a criminal to a copper theft crime tends to be tricky as more often than not, with this crime there are no fingerprints left at the crime scene unlike other crimes where a link can be made. “Unless we have video footage or a photo that show the criminals.”
Along with a surge of copper theft, the station is also facing a high number of theft of motor gate and theft out of motor vehicles within complexes which tends to happen in the early hours of the day.
Should community members see such a crime in progress, the station urges you to call them or your private security company.
