Four police vans, a response vehicle from security company ADT, 15 Dawncliffe Community Watch volunteers, a few volunteers from Westville’s Jubilee Community Watch, Umzimbeet Valley Residents Association and one from Kloof came to help.
Realising they were cornered, the burglars jumped fences into neighbouring properties, desperate to find an escape route.
They fled through Dawncliffe Road, Chiral Drive, Highgate, Kew, Cotswold and Trevor roads, but were eventually boxed in and arrested and their stolen loot recovered.
Westville Community Police Forum spokesman, Caz Weeks, said the entire operation, amazingly, took seven hours.
Volunteers and police took turns in an impromptu relay.
Many of the residents had to quit the hunt for work, said Weeks, but volunteers continued to drive around in their private vehicles – green lights on the roof or dashboard of their cars – scouring the suburb for signs of the burglars.
Police, by this stage, had several vehicles from units committed to the dragnet, with officers deployed to help, including Westville station members, the Flying Squad and the K-9 Unit.
Volunteers believe a third suspect may have escaped.
In two recent pre-dawn incidents, home owners were shot in their homes.
One, Gordon Donaldson, 55, died and the other, Piere van Schalkwyk of Alistair Road, is still in hospital.
Family spokesman, Hawie du Preez, said Van Schalkwyk had been stable now for a second consecutive day.
He had undergone two operations since he was shot on Sunday.
Referring to the Tuesday incident, police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala, said the two men, aged 21 and 25, were charged with housebreaking and theft at Westville SAPS.
One of the men would appear in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. The other is in hospital recovering from dog-bite wounds.
They had allegedly entered a home at 5am and taken two Apple computers.
“The men will be profiled to see if they are linked to any other cases,” she said.
Weeks said it was believed the two had been in the area since 3.30am because alarms were being triggered.
It is alleged that residents saw them walking on the road with a TV wrapped up in a carpet, but only reported the incident to police 45 minutes later.
Weeks said the arrest had brought a sense of relief, but warned the community not to become complacent.
“We are seeing an increase in crime throughout Westville at the moment. Factors are many and, with the current economic climate, we can expect crime in general to increase everywhere.
“Be vigilant, be careful, do not try tackling intruders and report all suspicious activity to SAPS 10111.”
A private security company’s statistics last week showed there had been an almost 50% increase in incidents in Durban’s Outer West suburbs.
Resident, Richard Whiteley, commended everyone involved.
He said the determination to make sure the suspects never made it out of the area showed in the way all those involved in the search never gave up.
Police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, commended the community for their assistance, but cautioned them not to approach suspects who might be armed and dangerous.
http://mini.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/burglars-nabbed-in-7-hour-relay-search-1980098