Police have recovered hundreds of thousands of rand worth of abalone after making a chance stop to help a stranded motorist.
A traffic officer stopped to help a man behind the wheel of a Nissan bakkie that had broken down and was causing a traffic jam in Strand Street, in Bellville, on Thursday morning July 12.
The officer helped the driver, a man in his 30s, move the bakkie out of the way. But the man quickly fled the scene on foot as the officer went to fetch something from his patrol car. The traffic officer alerted the police.
When police officers had inspected the bakkie, they had found about a thousand units of abalone, with an estimated street value of R200 000, said Bellville police spokeswoman, Colonel Fienie Nimb. “The suspect is still at large,” she said.
Police are tracing the owner of the vehicle. “The owner will be charged for their vehicle being used in a crime,” she said. Police are asking anyone with information to come forward.