JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – Three Nigerian men were arrested by the Hawks for stealing electronics and cars worth millions.
The Hawks raided a house in Tulisa Park at Dickens Place to find a warehouse full of stolen property.
The Hawks found stolen cars and boxes with laptops, cellphones and notepads.
The house could easily be confused with a storeroom as boxes were piled up to the roof.
The men had been seen by neighbours, who could see there was some illegal activity in the afternoons, as vehicles collected cigarettes, but they were afraid to report them, wanting to live their lives in peace.
But on Wednesday September 8, neighbours were shocked to see one of the Nigerian men coming out of the yard running and carrying a gun in his hand.
“I was walking past the house, when this guy came running with a gun in his hand. The gate was open just a little and he was running towards a car parked outside. He threw the gun into the car first, I heard it bang the door by the passenger seat, and he drove away very quickly,” a witness recalls.
Only three suspects were caught, and two managed to escape by jumping over the walls, leaving their unlucky partners behind.
One of the three men caught had minor cuts on his feet, it looked like he was trying to run without shoes.
The electronic goods were stolen during a robbery at a warehouse of the South African online retailer, Kalahari.com near OR Tambo International Airport.
The owners of the store were outside the house and one was proud of the Hawks. The Nigerian robbers had placed a gun to his head when they robbed the warehouse.
“The officers searched the house and found 125 laptops, 709 tablets and 176 cellphones. The three suspects were taken to the Moffatview Police Station,” said Constable Bila.
Captain Ramaloko of the Hawks said: “A search for the other suspects is under way, our team will not rest until the other suspects are arrested. The arrest will bring relief to the electronic stores affected by the robbery.”
