A video of an alleged brick stealing syndicate involving an elderly woman and two helpers went viral on WhatsApp groups on Wednesday.
Lentegeur East Sector 2 members believe the baksteen boewe have been stealing bricks from the paved area next to the Lentegeur Train Station for a few weeks before being busted on Tuesday morning.
Neighbourhood watch chairman Nizar Williams says they caught the skelms red-handed after they had been watching the area for a while when they noticed dozens of bricks disappearing.
The video shows two men believed to be car guards taking bricks from the paved parking area and loading it into a white VW Golf, where their “instructor”, an elderly woman wearing a black and white salaah top and a white doekie sits in the driver seat.
The member says: “Ja, hulle laai lekke die bakstene hier. Salaam alykum, tietie. Tietie kan ma tietie se gesig wegsteek, nuh.”
As the member approaches the suspects, the woman hides her face behind her doekie and tells the men to offload the bricks again.
Nizar tells the Daily Voice: “They have been stealing bricks for a while. We tried to come up with a plan to catch them and, the day before, we decided to throw down the hokkies at the station to have visibility because of the high crime rate in that area. I'm glad that our hard work paid off.”
Nizar says Lentegeur SAPS couldn't open a case because the bricks were offloaded again, but they plan on arresting the woman in her fifties who is thought to be the mastermind behind the theft.
“We were given authority from SAPS to take the matter into our own hands to arrest her. We went to her home but she wasn’t there. Nobody opened the door, but we could see in the yard that there were bricks and concrete slabs laying. We will go back for her.”
Nizar says the theft may seem like a petty crime, but it has a ripple effect: “Under the paving lies cables and this, too, is a concern of being stolen.”
He adds: “The train station is a major problem, because 90% of the guys who erect hokkies there are either related to gangs or are involved in criminal activity.”