Alcohol-related cases keep guards busy

DURING the weekend, response officers attended to 17 panic signals at liquor premises, where they had to attend to patrons being under the influence of alcohol and causing problems.

Last Thursday afternoon, Red Guard response officers apprehended a suspect who had stolen chocolates at a store.

The chocolates were recovered and the suspect released after the owner declined to open a criminal case, operations manager Willie Reynecke said.

Later, response officers caught a staff member at another store for theft of stock. The stock was returned and the owner declined to open a case.

On Friday night, response officers attended to an alarm activation at the premises of an architect where they found a bag containing household items.

As they were leaving, two people said someone had broken into their house and run into the premises. The response officers did a further search and recovered some stolen items in the grounds of a nearby block of flats.

In the early hours of Sunday, response officers in Engcobo responded to a duress call from the security officer at a filling station in the town.

On their arrival, the suspects started shooting at them and they returned fire.

The suspects took a small, undisclosed amount of money. Nobody was injured.