Surfers car stolen at Pipe

Area where the car was stolen from

Eish. If you live in Africa, you gonna get naai'd somewhere along the line. On Saturday it was visiting Vic Bay surfer Ruben Lanners's turn. His white Nissan Champ bakkie got stolen out of the Pipe car park on Saturday morning. Swak.

Some questions arose as to how this could happen seeing as there was a familiar car guard on duty. He did however raise the alarm immediately after the vehicle was stolen and did note down the registration plate. Maybe he coulda done something more, maybe not? He's one guy and can't have eye's in the back of his head. The car was parked in the quieter area of the car park - behind the toilet block.

He has been involved in apprehending car thieves previously, and has also looked after guys car keys/phones etc without any issues before (he wasn't in possession of the keys of the stolen vehicle - they were with the owner). So who knows what went wrong this time. Let's bear in mind that this was probably an organised car syndicate, as it was 3 ou's who arrived in a vehicle...not some random bergie just wandering along the beach seeing if he could nick a cabbie. 

Guy's like this can easily walk up to a car guard and threaten them with life and limb. So for a measley R5 tip would you as a car guard then take the chance at trying to apprehend them when they do steal a vehicle....knowing they might come back and beat the sh*te outta you? I sure as hang wouldn't. Not saying this is what happened, but it isn't improbable.

Here's hoping some of the Pipe regulars spot the next would-be car thief in action - before he makes a getaway, and dish out a bit of behavior modification training to him. Like it or not, it's the best deterrent. 

So, if you see suspicious looking ou's pull into the beach - keep your eye's on them. It's your beach and your carpark - so be responsible for it.

For all beach-related incidents - Don't forget that the Beach manager's office monitors the beach CCTV camera's from Rincon through to Fence, so you can always pop in there and get em to pull up the footage to see if you can spot anything. They share the management of the beach car park camera's with the Disaster Management centre - so if beach office doesn't have the footage, ask em to put you in touch with the other ou's. They do store a few days worth of footage, so you are able to go back and check.