MOSSEL BAY NEWS - On Friday, 23 October, the cellphone of a staff member at Mossel Bay's Township Angels art and craft shop was snatched.

Shop owner Hein Marais had kindly offered a homeless man a cup of coffee in the shop, which is in Church Street, in the centre of town. 

The man asked staffer Taressa Hall for some water. When her back was turned, he pocketed her cellphone.

It was only later in the day, at 10:00, that Taressa noticed it was missing.

Taressa's godchild, Rowen Readhead, asked for a description of the suspect, which Taressa gave to him. Rowen told the Mossel Bay Advertiser that from the description, he realised he had seen the man in town.

Rowen went to the taxi rank in town to look for the suspect and then later, he went to public toilets at the Bayside Mini Market below Checkers to look for him. There he spotted the man, who emerged from the toilets.

Central Improvement District (CID) security guards, who are employed to patrol in the town centre, were alerted about the cellphone theft.

The suspect was chased and below the Dias Museum Complex, he dropped the cellphone and the cellphone was retrieved and given back to Taressa. Two CID guards, Melvin Groenewald and Bradwell Saayman, helped chase the thief.

When Taressa received her cellphone, she saw the memory card and phone cover were missing, but the SIM card was still intact. Rowen later returned to the place where the thief dropped the phone and found the memory card and cover, which he gave to Taressa.

"I am going to the Mossel Bay Police Station to lay a written complaint of theft," Taressa said.

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