I want to share a story from Tuesday night (18 August), and to thank the Cloetesville community and police for something I did not expect.
That evening, I was robbed in my flat in Central Stellenbosch. My laptop, backpack and phone were taken. Luckily my phone had a tracking app, so I could call my boyfriend, who traced it as it moved down Bird Street.
My brother and I set out to follow it and the tracking led towards Cloetesville, where we happened to drive past a police station with a police car idling outside. We stopped and explained what had happened.
My brother left me at the station and set off with two officers to the tracked location, following directions the whole way through a phone call from my boyfriend. The officers were exceptional, allowing me to wait at the station and responding immediately.
When they reached the area, a commotion drew people out and the community rallied to help. They let the search move through their properties without a second thought.
Kids on bicycles and skateboards rode alongside my brother, searching everywhere. Some kids playing on a jungle gym spotted the man with the backpack running along a rooftop and the crowd chased him to another house, where he leapt into a garden.
From the porches, people called out to help the search. By this point, my boyfriend arrived with the tracking app and the kids huddled around the phone, trying to orientate the map to the streets around them.
More police arrived and more residents joined in, torches out, searching the bushes and the streets. By then, there may have been between 50 and 100 people helping.
After 20 minutes, someone spotted the man sprinting away and the crowd chased, though he got away. Then, 10 or 15 minutes later, someone found the backpack in one of the gardens, with everything important still inside. The crowd cheered, high fives and hugs went all round, and the police returned my bag to me safely.
None of this would have been possible without the community. People came together to help someone they had never met, and the police gave their all to help with what was, in the end, a petty crime.
To every person who searched that night, to all the kids running, skating and pedalling alongside my brother, to everyone who called out from their porch or opened their yard, and to every officer who helped, thank you.
My brother and boyfriend never gave up either, and I am grateful to them. What began as one of the worst nights turned into one of the most heartwarming. I will not forget the kindness of this community.
Anon, EMAIL
