Six men due in court for alleged theft of cellphone tower batteries

Six suspects are expected to appear in the Moorreesburg magistrate's court on Monday after allegedly stealing Vodacom cellphone tower batteries.

The men — aged between 28 and 37 — were arrested after a member of the local farm watch informed police that an alarm had gone off at Neulfontein Farm in the Moorreesburg area, Western Cape police spokesperson Capt FC van Wyk said in a statement.

“The caller indicated that he noticed on the CCTV footage that suspects were busy stealing cellphone tower batteries.”

This was on April 28, around 10.40am.

“The police officials and the farm watch members went to the N7 and were kept abreast of the suspects’ whereabouts by another farm watch member. From the information received, it appeared that the suspects were hiding items along the way.

“The suspects moved over the N7 route where a vehicle stopped and the suspects climbed into the vehicle and moved towards the R311 road in the direction of Riebeek West,” he said.

The vehicle was stopped and searched and police found five red Vodacom tower batteries each valued at about R125,000. Further searches of the area led to police finding a hammer, bolt cutter and a crowbar at the tower.