Vagrants brazenly steal gate for scrap
VAGRANTS ripped an industrial gate off its track in broad daylight in New Germany this weekend. The gate was installed at a business premises on Chelsea Avenue, which burned down in December.
A resident was getting his car washed when he noticed a vagrant being chased from the premises on Sunday afternoon.
He said he did not know whether the vagrant was being chased by the owner of the premises or a caretaker.
“A while later, a group of vagrants came up the road and sat nearby. After the man who chased the vagrant away left, they stole the gate,” he said.
He said the vagrants did not hide when a police van drove past.
“They took the gate, placed it on the grass and covered it with asbestos, then waited for transport,” he said.
On the same day it was reported that a man was seen carrying a security gate in Wyebank, a neighbouring area.
N & H Scrap Metals owner Hennie Thompson said they do not know if items brought to them for sale are stolen, but she is required by policy to keep items for seven days before selling them.
“This allows customers to come in and check if their stolen items are here, and if they find their items, we return them with pleasure,” she said.
Thompson said they buy scrap from customers who have an identity document, an address and are on the system.
“Sometimes people come with metals and say they were told by the owner that they could take them. This happened with the building that burned down, but it turns out they were lying. But in some cases they are telling the truth,” she said.
Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson Tony da Canha said he reported the incident to the police yesterday. “The most frightening thing is that the building has been condemned. No one should be in there because it could collapse at any minute.”
He said vagrants had stolen window and door frames without knowing how this would affect the building’s structure.
The manager of Allparts Group in Durban, which owns the premises in New Germany, refused to comment.