Police pounce on chop shop in Soweto

048 07-12-14 Stolen vehicles and car parts were discovered at a Pimville yard in Soweto yesterday morning by the SAPS. One female suspect was arrested at the house where the cars were parked which was used as a storage facility. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla

048 07-12-14 Stolen vehicles and car parts were discovered at a Pimville yard in Soweto yesterday morning by the SAPS. One female suspect was arrested at the house where the cars were parked which was used as a storage facility. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla

Published Dec 8, 2014

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Johannesburg - Seven stolen vehicles were found stripped beyond recognition at a house in Soweto on Sunday after police received information.

“We received a tip-off about the house being used to strip cars,” Soweto police spokesman Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said yesterday.

“Once the police arrived on the scene the people who were at the house ran away.”

Makhubela said three other men drove off in a car and the police arrested a 23-year-old woman who was in the yard.

The police recovered several car parts and keys belonging to BMW, Toyota, Honda and VW vehicles.

A Toyota Hilux, which was being stripped when police found it, was hijacked on Saturday in Parkview.

The owner had opened a case in Florida.

The house, a double storey on Ngwenya Street in Pimville, has been the subject of many meetings between neighbours.

A neighbour who helps patrol the streets, Mpho Bodibe, said cars had been entering and leaving the house throughout the day and night.

“The people who live in that house have been busy with this operation for a while. We have been telling the police in Kliptown and Moroka but nothing gets done,” she said.

Bodibe said the matter had been reported to “various people”, and they were waiting to see action taken.

“We need to know who to call because we have been reporting this but nothing happens. The owner of the house will come back at night and the community is not happy,” she said.

Bodibe said the people who stripped the cars had been operating in the yard for about a year. “They even used the open space across the road and act as if they are fixing the cars,” she said.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said a meeting had been held last month about the activities at the house. “We can point these people out,” he added.

Police confiscated the car parts in the yard as well as the equipment used to strip the cars, such as cutting torches, and computer boxes used to jump-start the cars.

Makhubela said an investigation was under way.

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The Star

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