Quick response by cops, security personnel saves car dealership from losing vehicles worth R5 million

Cape Town – A private security company and Mpumalanga police foiled the robbery of vehicles worth around R5 million from a car dealership.

Police said when they arrived at the scene in the early hours of Thursday morning, engines of four Toyota vehicles which were on sale, were already idling.

In total, eight vehicles were already unlocked and their dashboards had been stripped, as the criminals tried to locate the vehicles’ tracking devices, said police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala in a statement.

The targeted vehicles were four Toyota Fortuners, two Toyota Hilux GD6 and two Toyota Land Cruisers.

“Extra security features saved a vehicle dealership of vehicles worth about R5 million, which were already tampered with and some of them reportedly found with engines already running. This incident is said to have occurred in the early hours of today, February 2, in Delmas,” said Mohlala.

“The security company which keeps a round the clock monitoring system on the dealership picked up a footage where suspects were seen tampering with the dealership’s premises gate,” he said.

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Police in Delmas were immediately contacted by the private security company which was already heading to the business site, said Mohlala.

“The quick response by the police and security personnel saved the dealership millions of rands, though suspects fled to evade arrest upon arrival of the law enforcement agencies, but the suspects’ mission was however unaccomplished.

“On further observation, it was discovered that the suspects reportedly (angle) grinded the gate locks to gain entry into the premises. It is alleged that eight vehicles were already unlocked, their dashboards striped open and it is suspected that the suspects were trying to locate the tracking devices,” he said.

Mohlala said police were collecting clues which could lead to the arrest of the criminals.