A gang of laptop thieves were caught at Emperors Palace conference centre this morning when they stole one of ITWeb's laptops from its stand at the eGovernment conference.
Security personnel from Gremick Security, which is contracted to provide security services at the Palace, recognised the three individuals from a watch list and had them followed.
"I saw these guys' pictures only this morning on our security monitoring system," says Popeye Roberts of Gremick, "so I had them followed. They were wandering around near the ITWeb exhibition without laptops and then when they came out they suddenly had one."
According to Jared Wright of ITWeb's IT department, one of the thieves distracted stand personnel while another walked around the side and took the Acer Travelmate.
Roberts apprehended the thieves and held them in a safe room until the police arrived. An accomplice in a car outside repeatedly attempted to phone the thieves after they were caught, but was not found despite a search of the car park. "But we have all their numbers now," adds Roberts.
Incredibly, he says, he saw them in court only yesterday where they were up for laptop theft.
"They paid a R5 000 admission of guilt fine and were allowed to go free," he says. Jan Killian of Gremick says the thieves were probably part of a syndicate who target casinos and conference centres in Gauteng, posing as delegates and walking off with high-value items such as laptops.
"That sounds like a reasonable cost of sale to me," said one delegate. "A R5 000 admission of guilt fine per incident, when you're making tens of thousands from stolen laptops."
A police sergeant who arrived said he did not know what would happen to the three.
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