Three Tshwane Police Officers have received accolades from the city and on social media after they tracked down a cellphone thief and returned the device to the owner.
It might seem like a really simple story about a cellphone being recovered but the heroic actions of the policemen has been shared thousands of times on social media, especially because they refused to be thanked with a gift, saying that they were only doing their job.
IOL reported that Helen Olivier and her boyfriend Jan Kotze were caught off guard as they waited at a traffic light in the CBD of Pretoria while on their way to Brits.
The 23-year-old chemical engineering student and her boyfriend, 29, were in the city when a man grabbed the cellphone and ran up a one-way towards the taxi rank last Saturday.
Kotze met constables Rudzani Makakavhula, Sedzani Mutshembele and Tshishonga Rathando while driving around the block to try cut the thief off.
The police officers all went towards the taxi rank in Marabastad, despite the young couple believing the search for the thief was a waste of time.
“With so many people coming and going, including a bus, I believed that it was a waste of time, but I gave my details to Makakavhula who seemed determined. He promised they would not rest until they caught him,” he said.
The officers patrolled the area and came across two men who looked suspicious. They approached them and searching them, they found that one of them had the phone.
The suspect then took the phone from his pocket, threw in on the ground and ran away, disappearing into the crowds.
The officers were able to contact Olivier and Kotze late that night to come to the station to identify the recovered cellphone, which they did the following day.
When they got there, the young pair were able to open the security pattern with just one try.
“To be honest, when I saw the man running with my phone I just thought my phone was gone.”
“As a student, and with the strikes happening so frequently a lot of classes are moved online. I watch videos online and visit the website frequently for academic activities through my smartphone. I would definitely have struggled without it. I need it to keep up to date and that is why I am so grateful to the policemen,”
Kotze said what happened restored his faith in the metro police because he was used to being stopped only when he would be given a ticket.
Like many people on social media, he felt that stories like these needed to be shared more frequently just because the public bombarded social media with complaints about the metro police.
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