Cops accused of ‘re-stealing’ two sheep

Four Burgersdorp police officers have given new meaning to the expression “looking sheepish” after they were accused of stealing two sheep that had already been stolen.

The officers – Sergeant ZL Nyangintsimbi, Constable P Rasimeni, Constable KG Dzai and Constable KA Prusente – are in a stew after the edible evidence disappeared from the police station.

They appeared before the Burgersdorp Magistrate’s Court last Friday on charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice.

The sheep had been brought in by two municipal employees from the Joe Gqabi district municipality’s water department on January 9.

According to police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Cynthia Handile, the workers had startled two thieves who dropped the carcasses stolen from a farm near the police station.

The municipal workers handed the stolen property in to the station where the four cops were on duty. But when the workers paid a return visit to the police station three days later to follow up on the case, the sheep were nowhere to be found and no case had been registered. The four cops will appear in court again on February19. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za