Table Mountain National Park ‘mugger’ arrests increase

By Rhodé Marshall
06 March 2008

The Table Mountain National Park says the arrest of four muggers on Wednesday brings number of arrests at the mountain to six in the last 14 days.

“Five suspects were arrested in connection with Skeleton Gorge related incidents where tourists were robbed of personal belongings and one was arrested on Tafelberg road in connection with the theft of a bicycle,” says Paddy Gordon, the Operations Manager for the northern section of Table Mountain National Park.

One of the four suspects arrested Wednesday died of dehydration while he was being treated by paramedics.

Gordon says the park has deployed a chopper which enables them to identify actual and potential hideout spots, foot patrols have been increased, dog patrols and a stronger relationship has been built between the park, police and Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden security.

“We spent the past three weeks on an intensive race of the vulnerable areas, to profile suspects and to understand their modus operandi. During this exercise paths and escape routes were identified in areas not used by the public,” says Gordon.