IN a world where crime seems to control lives, a Bluff man refused to sit back and watch as three car thieves attempted to steal a work van from his business parking lot yesterday, 28 March.

Seeing the crime unfold on CCTV cameras, Brad Diederick took action and ran down to the parking lot where he caught one of the men redhanded inside the bakkie. “We always focus on the main outside camera for security purposes. I’m always conscious to watch the cameras while I work, as we have had incidents in the past as well,” said Diederick.

Fast-acting Brad grabbed the thief and wrestled him to the ground, with great effort to collar him. “I happened to see the car park across the road and reverse into position. I normally wait to see if a customer or someone gets out the car, but this time no-one did so I was already on edge. The second I saw him walk across the road towards the cars I knew something was up, so I sprinted out immediately. By the time I got out there, he was already in the bakkie. I instinctively just ran towards him.

All I wanted to do was catch him at that stage.

The thought of the man being armed did not enter his mind at the time. He knew he had the advantage because the thieves had no idea he was already aware of the situation. “Afterwards it went through my mind that the other two guys in the car might have been armed. And I realised afterwards it could have been worse because he dropped his tools which he’d used to open the doors,” he added.  All three men fled in their getaway vehicle, a gold Polo.

“Crime is very bad it this area. Thieves have tried to steal our van three times before. The first time they succeeded but we recovered it because of the tracker. Many businesses in this area have been hit in the last few years. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing anymore,” he said.

Watch the CCTV footage here:

https://www.facebook.com/BradleyDiedericks24/videos/10212621173867600/

Read here: Nine way to combat rising car theft on the Bluff