Selma Ikela
Windhoek-A 22-year-old thief got trapped on a razor wire fence after he and two accomplices reportedly broke into a butchery in Katutura in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The man ran into the razor wire and got ensnared and stuck in the barbed wire. He then spent the best part of an hour and a half hanging from the barbed wire until the City of Windhoek Emergency Services arrived to untangle him.
“He was not hurt at all. He is lucky he didn’t die, because he was at a dangerous place,” said One Tau butchery owner Shali Andimba.
The incident happened at around 05h00 on Saturday morning when three men approached the butchery with the intention of stealing meat.
One of the suspects entered the butchery by cutting through the roof. Once inside, he passed on the meat carcasses to the man on the roof, who in turn handed it to a third person on the ground. Andimba said meat and cash were stolen. They had managed to recovered meat worth N$10,000 in the riverbed.
Two men were subsequently arrested and appeared in Katutura Magistrate Court yesterday, while the third suspect is yet to be arrested.
Andimba said the second suspect, aged 27, who was inside the butchery was his neighbour and had previously broken into his home. He said the suspect was released on N$500 bail.
“He was arrested and released on N$500 bail but the damage I incurred was more than that. We went four to five times to court and I said ‘I don’t want to proceed with the case.’ Out of his stupidity, he decided to come to the butchery. I don’t know why,” Andimba remarked.
He said the burglary happened around the time they arrive at the butchery to prepare for the day. Andimba had gone to open the entrance to the butchery when he saw the cash drawer on the floor and realised there had been a break-in.
“I entered the office and all the files were damaged. The boy is good, he knew how to disconnect the alarm system. He then went to the closed-circuit television maybe trying to delete the files and disable it. We are still trying to recover the footage,” Andimba said.
City Police spokesman Fabian Amukwelele confirmed the incident. “The owner has a good relationship with the community and they informed us about the incident,” Amukwelele said.