The City’s Law Enforcement officers stationed on the Grand Parade have clamped down on chain snatching and drug dealing in the area.
On March 9, at about 3.30pm, officers stationed on the Grand Parade were on patrol when they saw a man running towards them with another man and a parking attendant chasing after him.
They immediately identified the man being chased as a regular pickpocket in the area.
The officers joined the chase and the suspect was apprehended with the combined effort of Law Enforcement, the Central City Improvement District (CCID) public safety officers and the parking attendant.
The complainant identified the 23-year-old man as the one who had grabbed her necklace.
The necklace, worth R10 000 was recovered and returned to the victim, who was in Cape Town for the Cape Town Cycle Tour.
On Wednesday March 7, at about 5pm, officers on patrol on the Grand Parade heard frantic screams coming from the side of the steel bridge in Strand Street.
The officers saw a woman on the ground and a man running away from the scene and being pursued by another person.
The officers then joined a CCID public safety officer in a chase and together they arrested a 24-year-old man who had snatched an 18-carat gold chain worth about R9 500 from an Irish tourist on holiday in Cape Town. Earlier on the same day, Law Enforcement officers on the Grand Parade arrested a stall-holder trading cellphones.
He was caught with 61 small packets of tik and a large packet of tik.
The container which housed the stall was impounded and the traders’ association was asked to bar him from trading there again.
The spokesperson for City Law Enforcement, Wayne Dyason, said: “The message is clear – attacks on tourists and the consumption and peddling of drugs and pirated goods will not be tolerated.”
