Cape Town - Cops have probed a woman who took a little boy reported as “kidnapped” in Cape Town.
The woman, believed to be an aunt of two-year-old Caleb Barends, came forward on Monday after a massive manhunt was launched for the missing child.
Athlone police spokesperson Sergeant Zita Norman says the unidentified woman, in her forties, together with Caleb’s paternal grandmother, brought the boy to the police station on Monday evening just after 6pm.
Norman says: “At this stage we can’t comment further, the matter is under investigation.”
A source close to the investigation told Daily Voice the woman told cops that she took the child “for his own wellbeing” after seeing him crying in the street.
Norman said Caleb was handed back to his parents, Remo Cupido and Shevonne Barends.
“A woman from Athlone, who is a relative of the little boy, was interviewed by a detective of the Family Violence and Sexual Offences Unit and a statement was obtained,” she says.
“The parents were also interviewed and a statement taken.
“The child is currently in the care of his biological parents.”
She added that no one had been charged at this stage.
Caleb disappeared on Sunday morning at about 11am while walking with his father in Blossom Street in Silvertown.
Shevonne said she was on her way to the shop and Caleb had thrown a tantrum to go with her, but she left him with his father.
Remo told cops he could only watch in horror when a woman, wearing a pink scarf and driving a gold-coloured Nissan Langley, stopped by his crying child, loaded him into her car and drove off.
The dad claimed he shouted at her to stop, but she didn’t.
Shevonne says when she came home, Remo told her Caleb had been kidnapped.
A relative told them to report it to the cops.
The young mom, who is six-months pregnant, admitted Remo was an ex-drug addict, who still uses tik “now and again”.
Daily Voice
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