Railway thieves arrested in lightning speed

By Yamkela Xhaso
19 August


The City of Cape Town’s cable theft task team successfully arrested those involved in the theft of railway equipment that left Cape Town’s rail commuter service severely affected on Friday last week.

The team is reported to have acted on a tip-off from a scrap dealer and swooped on A L Scrapyard in Woodstock on Friday.

The team known as Copperheads arrested the cashier in possession of stolen goods.

The team is said to have been working closely with Metrorail’s security contractor.

Councilor Pieter van Dalen chairman off the Copperheads said that the team also held another five people suspected with ripping out railway clips and tracks to be sold as scrap metal.

The Copperheads investigators revealed that there was a syndicate based in both in Athlone and

Woodstock, and the team also suspected that the syndicate was involved in the theft of rail equipment which resulted in Friday’s Metrorail’s disruptions

The theft resulted in costing Metrorail R48 000 to replace copper signalling cables and caused the disruptions of hundreds of thousands of commuters thus negatively affecting business.

Pieter said that the successes are based mainly on the tip-offs made anonymously. He added that police should introduce a 24 hour fraud line.

Van Dalen thanked the people of Cape Town for their tip-offs and encouraged them to continue reporting any suspicious activity to the Copperheads on a toll free hotline 0800 222 771