Friends of the Rail Forum

Peter Odell wrote:NEWS FROM KIMBERLEY

Hi all,

Within hours of being alerted HRASA in conjunction with SAPS organised crime units in Kimberley and Cape Town, traced and retrieved rare TFHP owned cabside numberplates, stolen from a TFHP locomotive in Kimberley some 8 years ago. The 2 cabsides are now being returned to TFHP and the "owners" prosecuted.

Regards P J Odell for Steamnet 2000 Kimberley

This is the sequence of events that lead to the recovery of the plates
from 25 NC 3411 as stated by Mark Robinson of HRASA (Heritage Railway
Association of South Africa.

a.. The sale was spotted on the Internet (Dylan Knott)

b.. The information was passed to TFHP and HRASA (Peter Odell)

c.. HRASA unable to open a police case thanks to not being the asset owner

d.. TFHP opened a case with the Kimberley police

e.. Concurrently a (bogus) offer to purchase was made to establish
whereabouts of the plates

f.. SAPS Kimberley passed the case to SAPS SOCU in Cape Town

g.. The "purchaser" and the SAPS SOCU set up a sting operation with HRASA

h.. At 16h30 last Friday a local HRASA member viewed the plates at a
factory in Bellville to establish that they were in fact the right
items and not replicas. On this being established a phone call was
made, supposedly to the "purchaser" but actually to the waiting SAPS
team, who then raided the premises.

Thereafter a raid was conducted at the sellers home where one other
number plate from an electric unit also thought to be stolen was
discovered. One gentleman's Friday afternoon was rather thoroughly spoilt!

i.. In discussion with the SAPS it would seem fairly certain that the
current seller is not the person who stole the plates and he is now,
as they say "assisting the police with their enquiries".

The SAPS certainly have taken the matter seriously - the team that
conducted the raids was no less than 7 detectives in three vehicles!