Police are calling on Milner Estate residents to report drug-fuelled metal thieves.
This is after an 18-year-old suspect allegedly ripped bathroom and kitchen silver metal fittings from walls and cabinets and metres of copper wiring from a home and flogged it to a neighbourhood scrap metal merchant last Thursday.
Purple Frog rental agent Romano Mopp, also a fit young Old Selbornian premier league hockey player, said he raced to the Scott Street home after a community tip-off.
This was the seventh act of vandalism against three of the properties he looks after with damage estimated at R100000, said his boss Michele Hannan.
Mopp spotted the suspect with a bag on his back, and gave chase on foot, bringing him down after a 500m sprint.
“I caught him by the hoodie. It was physical. He knows the streets. I found our tenant’s gaming speakers in his bag,” Mopp said.
He, Hannan, and a police officer took the suspect to Heine Kernecamp, owner of Hein’s scrapyard in Lennox Street where they recovered four taps, a kitchen mixer and 4m of copper piping Kernecamp allegedly bought from the suspect.
Hannan claimed Kernecamp admitted that he did not ask for, nor take a copy of the suspect’s ID book as required by law because he was “a regular”.
She had accused Kernecamp of accepting stolen goods from drug addicts, and he told her to get off his property.
Saturday Dispatch visited Kernecamp and he said he had taken the suspect’s “full name and ID” but when asked to produce a copy of the ID, he could not.
He did find a slip in his register with the suspect’s name but there was a blank in the “identity verified” box.
Hannan said: “Every single person living in Milner Estate will tell you that the people living in a place known as the drug house, are drug addicts. People are scared to talk about it because of fear.”
Saturday Dispatch drove past the home. A weathered-looking man, who would not give his name, was asked if there were drug dealers living there.
“How many fingers have you got on your hands. That is not enough. Wait! Here he comes now!”
When two men joined him, he suddenly burst out: “Look he is recording this. Dispatch mustn’t come here and want to buy coke and heroin!”
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said Morne Botha, 18, was arrested last Thursday and appeared in court on Monday.
He said the SAPS did not know of any gang in Milner Estate, but “SAPS continues to urge all community members to come forward with information of such a gang so police can follow-up and investigate that information rigorously.”
Director of the Border Kei Chamber of Business Les Holbrook called for stricter policing of laws preventing scrap merchants receiving non-ferrous (more valuable) metals.
“Non-ferrous metal is not simply ‘found’. No one throws away a brass tap or copper pipe. It has been ripped off the walls of homes, shops and factories. It can only come from theft, especially organised crime.”
He called for repeat offenders to to be given prison time and for dealers to face serious sanction. It was impossible to put a money value on the crime, but said it caused serious business disruption and losses. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Drug-fuelled metal theft plagues Milner Estate
This is after an 18-year-old suspect allegedly ripped bathroom and kitchen silver metal fittings from walls and cabinets and metres of copper wiring from a home and flogged it to a neighbourhood scrap metal merchant last Thursday.
Purple Frog rental agent Romano Mopp, also a fit young Old Selbornian premier league hockey player, said he raced to the Scott Street home after a community tip-off.
This was the seventh act of vandalism against three of the properties he looks after with damage estimated at R100000, said his boss Michele Hannan.
Mopp spotted the suspect with a bag on his back, and gave chase on foot, bringing him down after a 500m sprint.
“I caught him by the hoodie. It was physical. He knows the streets. I found our tenant’s gaming speakers in his bag,” Mopp said.
He, Hannan, and a police officer took the suspect to Heine Kernecamp, owner of Hein’s scrapyard in Lennox Street where they recovered four taps, a kitchen mixer and 4m of copper piping Kernecamp allegedly bought from the suspect.
Hannan claimed Kernecamp admitted that he did not ask for, nor take a copy of the suspect’s ID book as required by law because he was “a regular”.
She had accused Kernecamp of accepting stolen goods from drug addicts, and he told her to get off his property.
Saturday Dispatch visited Kernecamp and he said he had taken the suspect’s “full name and ID” but when asked to produce a copy of the ID, he could not.
He did find a slip in his register with the suspect’s name but there was a blank in the “identity verified” box.
Hannan said: “Every single person living in Milner Estate will tell you that the people living in a place known as the drug house, are drug addicts. People are scared to talk about it because of fear.”
Saturday Dispatch drove past the home. A weathered-looking man, who would not give his name, was asked if there were drug dealers living there.
“How many fingers have you got on your hands. That is not enough. Wait! Here he comes now!”
When two men joined him, he suddenly burst out: “Look he is recording this. Dispatch mustn’t come here and want to buy coke and heroin!”
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said Morne Botha, 18, was arrested last Thursday and appeared in court on Monday.
He said the SAPS did not know of any gang in Milner Estate, but “SAPS continues to urge all community members to come forward with information of such a gang so police can follow-up and investigate that information rigorously.”
Director of the Border Kei Chamber of Business Les Holbrook called for stricter policing of laws preventing scrap merchants receiving non-ferrous (more valuable) metals.
“Non-ferrous metal is not simply ‘found’. No one throws away a brass tap or copper pipe. It has been ripped off the walls of homes, shops and factories. It can only come from theft, especially organised crime.”
He called for repeat offenders to to be given prison time and for dealers to face serious sanction. It was impossible to put a money value on the crime, but said it caused serious business disruption and losses. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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