INLSA
A happy Chad Cooke, 18, of Manor Gardens, with the scooter that the police recovered and returned to him just five hours after it was stolen. PICTURE: MARILYN BERNARD
A KwaZulu-Natal teenager has thanked “good Samaritan” police for the swift recovery of his scooter after it was stolen on Monday.
Chad Cooke, 18, of Manor Gardens, was asleep on Monday night when he was woken by the family’s dogs barking in the yard.
“It was about midnight and I went outside to see what was happening. I went to check the garage and realised that my scooter was missing,” he said.
He then realised that the entrance gate to his family’s home had been derailed.
“I pressed the panic button and our security company was here soon afterwards. They arrived in two cars and searched the property.
“I got in one car with them and we searched around the neighbourhood, but we could not find anything.”
The security company told Cooke that the incident would be reported to the police.
He returned home, thinking he would never see his “beloved” R10 000 bike again.
“I was upset and barely slept that night,” he said.
At dawn there was a hoot at the front gate. And there were the police with Cooke’s bike in a van.
His elated mother, Sharon, said: “I wanted to kiss those police officers because they had done a good job.”
Cooke took his scooter in for repairs yesterday after finding that the locking mechanism, exhaust and number plate had been broken.
“The seat was also broken and the scooter is scratched a lot,” he said.
He said the thieves had probably struggled to carry it when they couldn’t get it started without a key.
“They obviously dropped it a few times on the road.”
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said that community service centre members had found the bike abandoned in the road.
“They returned the bike to the owner,” he said. “The members are commended for their prompt response, and we are pleased that the owner got his motorbike back.”
