Durban - Several stolen vehicles were recovered over the past week by private security company Blue Security.
Recoveries were reported in Cato Crest, eManzimtoti, Hillcrest and Chatsworth.
Spokesperson for Blue Security company Max Naicker said in an incident last Thursday, a courier vehicle was recovered after it was hijacked.
He said the vehicle was hijacked by seven armed men in the Berea West area.
‘’The courier company got in touch with the security company detailing that seven armed men from three vehicles approached the courier car and hijacked the vehicle. An officer that was patrolling in the vicinity responded and was able to locate the car on Jan Smuts Avenue,’’ he said.
He said a chase ensued.
‘’Suspects sped towards the Cato Crest informal settlements. The suspects ended up abandoning the vehicle with the keys in the ignition and the vehicle was handed over to the Mayville police station,’’ he said
In another incident last week, a vehicle that was reported stolen in Pretoria earlier this month, was recovered in Hillcrest.
The vehicle was triggered as a suspected stolen vehicle when it passed Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, put up by Blue Security, heading towards Hillcrest from the Waterfall area.
He said the vehicle was intercepted and the suspect and vehicle were handed over to Hillcrest police.
In another incident, an abandoned vehicle in Havenside, Chatsworth, turned out to be a vehicle that had been stolen from Westcliff.
Blue Security’s Armed Response Officers and Community Crime Prevention Unit (CCPU) teams found the vehicle abandoned and noticed that the door handle, lock and ignition appeared to have been tampered with.
‘’CCPU decided to check with the SAPS and established that the vehicle was stolen in Westcliff. The SAPS decided to take the owner of the vehicle to it and he confirmed that it was his bakkie which was stolen from his property. Police are investigating the case further,’’ Naicker said.
Another vehicle that was reported stolen from a shopping centre last week in eManzimtoti was recovered the same day.
Naicker said the vehicle was found abandoned in KwaMakhutha and was handed over to police for further investigations.
Police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda, commenting generally on hijackings and theft of vehicles and the involvement of syndicates, said some incidents were not linked to each other or to syndicates.
“We place an emphasis on having communities work with us in dealing with these cases,’’ he said.