Alleged geyser thieves in hot water
ALEXANDRA – A fight between two male friends and work mates led to their arrest by police for alleged business robbery and attempted murder.
A fight between two male friends led to their arrest by police on charges of business robbery and attempted murder.
The men from Rabie Ridge in Midrand were remanded in custody by the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court pending further investigation.
The court heard that the robbery and attempted murder occurred on the evening of 13 March this year at a plumbing company in Midrand. It resulted in the theft of geysers valued at R19 000, which were recovered, and the injury of a security guard who recovered in hospital after being beaten unconscious, allegedly by the accused.
The guard was found unconscious the following morning on the doorstep of the company’s office by another security guard reporting for duty. The guard also found two company bakkies – one outside and the other inside the premises, loaded with geysers and still with the car keys in the ignition.
The men were arrested on 15 March in Rabie Ridge after a fight while drinking alcohol. One of them is alleged to have stabbed the other, but when the police arrived, neither of them wanted to report a case about the fight but the police arrested and released them on bail.
The attacker is said to have later informed another security guard he knew at the company that his friend who he had stabbed, had allegedly beaten the guard on the head with the butt of a gun resulting in his hospitalisation.
Preliminary police investigations are said to have revealed that the two worked as a team in selling stolen geysers and other plumbing items from the company and elsewhere to traders. This after one trader is said to have confirmed to buying some geysers from one of the two men.
It is alleged the man had approached the trader with the geysers, claiming that he had been given them by someone he didn’t mention. The geysers which the trader hadn’t yet sold were recovered and returned to the Midrand company from where they had been stolen.
