October, 2007
Tracker and Western Cape police have this afternoon (October 2, 2007) discovered what officials believe may well be South Africa's first vehicle chop shop disguised as a house.
The discovery occurred after Tracker personnel and the SAPS Cape Town Dog Unit tracked a vehicle that had been hijacked from Nyanga to Site C in Khayalitsha. After realizing the signal for the stolen vehicle was actually coming from inside a nearby dwelling, they investigated further and discovered that the informal house was merely a shell allegedly used to conceal a thriving chop shop.
Both the Tracker vehicle and another Light Delivery Vehicle (LDV) as well as numerous spare parts worth approximately R300 000 were recovered from the scene.
"The informal house looks like many others in the area. It has a dilapidated fence and overgrown garden in front and even has a door and windows facing the road. In fact, the guys were quite clever in so far as the house has no front gate or driveway area where a vehicle could be driven into, thus further diverting attention away from them. However, it appears that when they wanted to drive a vehicle into the property, they would simply pull out the poles supporting the rickety fence, lay it down and drive inside. They would then seemingly disconnect the large zinc panels that make up the front of the 'house' and simply drive the vehicle inside before quickly reassembling the structure," says Tracker's Communications Manager, Gareth Crocker.
The house has no rooms or dividing walls inside, but consists only of an open work area for vehicles to be stripped.
No arrests have yet been made, but police are following up on several leads.
The incident follows Tracker's recent discovery of another possible first for South Africa: a mobile chop shop in Soweto.
"Several weeks ago, our recovery crews tracked a vehicle to Soweto where, after pulling over a large truck, discovered a team of men inside the cargohold busy stripping the stolen vehicle," says Crocker.
Over the years, Tracker's technology has recovered vehicles from a number of interesting sites and settings such as large shipping containers, subterranean parking areas, wrapped in tinfoil, alongside large power stations, underground (in a crudely dug hole) and once, even under water.
For more information, please contact Gareth Crocker, Communications Manager for Tracker on gcrocker@tracker.co.za, (011) 380 0300 or 082 78 78 757.