It all came down to simply reporting what he had seen happening at a vacant property to his local neighbourhood watch according to Mark Frost, whose information led to the successful arrest of a suspect caught in the act of housebreaking. At approximately 8.30am on Sunday morning 12 April Frost was in the back yard of his house in Kingfischer Street when he heard glass break, he told the Record.
“I noticed a man with a blue overall jacket moving on the vacant property,” Frost said.
“When he moved away from the window, something seemed wrong and I decided to make a phone call.”
Frost is a member of the Honey Hills Block Watch (HHBW) and phoned in immediately.
Apcan Security Group responded to the scene and proceeded to search the converted house alongside HHBW and Horison Block Watch patrollers. They found a man perceived to be the suspect hiding behind one of the doors. With their help, the HHBW patrollers were able to arrest the suspect.
According to HHBW’s Bobby Boyd, the patrollers phoned after sector police vehicles were not available at the time, so the suspect was taken to the Roodepoort Police Station by the security guards.
Frost thanks André, one of the patrollers that responded to the scene, for their swift response and following up with him after the scene was cleared.
“I don’t think the man managed to remove anything from the property before they got there. I’m not really sure what he would have been after,” Frost said.
Frost said that the property had been vacant for quite some time. It used to be the offices of a property company. People working at the dentistry next door declined to comment. According to one of the patrollers from Horison Block Watch, their search of the converted house revealed that vagrants have moved into the property. One of the patrollers said the suspect said he didn’t know the other people living there, implying that he was trying to gain entry to “his room” in the building. The patroller phoned the property company that previously owned the building to enquire about its vacancy.
“I was told the building had been sold but they refused to give me the details of the seller or the new owners to alert them about what’s going on.
“At the end of the day, this vacant building – or its current state as the home of these vagrants – poses a threat to our community,” he told the Record.
He said despite it not being used for business, some of the assets were left behind in a wooden shack on the proprty.
The Roodepoort Police were not available to comment.
