Kraaifontein police station commander Brigadier Gerda van Niekerk says theft is spiking alarmingly and she urges residents to stop fuelling it by buying stolen goods.
She says burglaries and thefts out of vehicles are big worries in the area and cellphones and wheelie bins are frequently stolen.
“The most serious concern is the fact that people are buying stolen property which motivate the suspects to do more crime,” she said in a statment yesterday, Tuesday September 13.
She said detectives had learnt that thieves had sold the handbag of murder victim, Denise Nel, for R20. She did not say if any arrests were made.
Ms Nel, 52, had been walking to the Eikenfontein train station just after 5am on Thursday September 1 (Stabbed to death for a cellphone”, Northern News, September 7). She had been staying at The haven Night Shelter and trying to get back on her feet, working for the City’s Expanded Public Works Programme.
Brigadier Van Niekerk said while searching a cellphone shop in Kraaifontein, police had also recovered a cellphone taken from a man who had been killed in Gauteng.
No one could be sure that the items that go for cheap are blood-free, she said.
Kraaifontein police had also recently found that a man sold another man’s car without consent from the owner, who then reported the car as stolen.
Officers recovered the car and returned it to its owner, causing the buyer to lose his money.
