Ringing phone collars criminal

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 09 Jan 2008

A 15-year-old boy, who police say is part of a youth gang terrorising Etwatwa, on the East Rand, has been caught red-handed with a cellphone he had just stolen.

Police say the gang of six attacked three people on Monday evening in two separate incidents and stole two mobile phones before running off.

"One of the victims ran after one of the suspects," says police spokesman superintendent Eugene Opperman. The victim shouted at some bystanders and they helped him to corner the youth. The posse then took the boy to the local police station.

When they arrived there with the boy, another victim of the same gang was busy opening a robbery case. Opperman says she recognised the youth as one of those who robbed her. She told the duty officers that the cellphone in the boy's hand was hers.

"The suspect vehemently denied ever seeing the woman and told police that the cellphone was his property," Opperman says. "The police officer quietly turned around and dialled the cell number given to him by the complainant. The cellphone in the suspect's hand rang and the true ownership was immediately established."

Opperman says the youth was charged with aggravated robbery and police are now searching for the rest of the gang. The boy will appear in the Daveyton Magistrate's Court today.

In a similar incident at the weekend, police arrested a man in Mamelodi, Pretoria, after he went to report he had been robbed of his cellphone. When a detective phoned the number, the handset rang in the man's pocket.