Amanzimtoti ATM thieves tried to run but they couldn’t hide

Swift team work by Blue Security and Amanzimtoti’s Community Crime Prevention Organisation led to the arrest of an alleged thief who robbed a shopper of an ATM card on Friday afternoon.
Blue Security community and media liaison officer Andreas Mathios said members of the team chased down and arrested a suspect after a CCPO committee member witnessed a gang robbing a customer of an ATM card at a supermarket in Warner Beach. The incident occurred at around 3.20pm.
“The suspects robbed the victim and then jumped into a getaway vehicle, a white VW Polo and drove to a mall in Winkelspruit, where they attempted to withdraw money from an ATM using the stolen card. They then jumped into their vehicle and fled along the R102 in the direction of Umgababa,” Mathios said.
“An alert Blue Security armed response officer spotted the suspects and a chase ensued. The suspects then headed onto the N2 Northbound and after driving about one kilometre they crashed their vehicle into the back of another car on the freeway. Two suspects then jumped out of the getaway vehicle and ran into the sugarcane on the side of the road,” he said.
Mathios said a Blue Security officer and his CCPO partner then chased the suspects on foot and managed to apprehend one of the suspects. “Members of the Umkomaas SAPS who were travelling on the N2 Southbound stopped to assist the officers and the eThekwini Metro Police K9 unit and ET Security also attended the scene and attempted to track down the second suspect without success,” he said.
Metro Police transported the suspect to the Amanzimtoti police station for processing.
Mathios commended the officers for their vigilance and swift team work in bringing the suspect swiftly to book. “We hope this latest arrest sends a strong message to criminals that our officers have got the Amanzimtoti area under surveillance and that we will continue to work together with the CCPO and other security firms in the area to effectively fight crime,” he said.