Three men were apprehended by Mi7 Reaction Officers in Allandale yesterday after a peculiar case of housebreaking.
The men are currently in police custody after a cellphone belonging to one of them was found on scene – leading to a flurry of fingerpointing as to who burgled the Helston Road home.
It all started yesterday evening, just after 7pm, when a Helston Road resident reported to the Mi7 Control Room that a housebreaking was underway at a neighbouring property. The resident reportedly saw several people rummaging around inside the home.
Although the home did not belong to a Mi7 client, Reaction Officers responded nonetheless.
The first Reaction Officer to arrive found that the bars on the front gate had been tampered with, and the front door broken in.
Other units arrived shortly afterwards for back up, and a full perimeter check was done.
They found copper pipes were stripped from the property, burglar guards broken, and a suitcase filled with items believed to be taken from inside the house.
According to a community member, people were seen inside the home from as early as 12pm that day, so suspects could have been looting the premises over a longer period than initially thought.
Neighbours made multiple attempts to contact the man living at the property, but to no avail.
The decision was then made by neighbours to enter the house, in case the resident was attacked and unresponsive.
Inside, the house was totally vandalised, with kitchenware and crockery found broken, and multiple items stolen.
The resident, however, was not present. Importantly, a cellphone was found in the property, and nobody knew who it belonged to.
While Mi7 Reaction Officers were speaking to neighbours outside, six men approached.
One claimed that he had come to recover a cellphone which he lent to another.
The phone found inside the burgled property was positively linked to the man. Intensive questioning then led to flurry of fingerpointing and accusations between the six in the group, with one saying there is another who lives in Copesville that the cellphone was lent to – a seventh suspect.
Mi7 Reaction Officers went to the Copesville property, pointed out by one of the six, and reined in the seventh suspect.
After questioning, he admitted to being part of several other housebreakings in the area but denied his involvement in this one. Police further positively identified him as a wanted suspect linked to these cases.
In all, three suspects were arrested under the suspicion of housebreaking – the man from Copesville, the owner of the cellphone, and another from the initial group.
The matter is still under investigation.
