Homeless man has cracking time

HE allegedly had a smashing time making a name for himself – but it was a real "pane" to sort out for Schauderville shop owners at the weekend.

A homeless man was a stone's throw away from realising his mission of having everybody at Stanford Court shopping centre say his name when he went on the rampage, shattering 73 of the Port Elizabeth complex's 121 shop window panes, including at the Ellerines and Shoprite stores.

Damage is estimated at about R150000, with each window costing about R2000 to replace.

A suspect was arrested later.

At about 11pm on Saturday, the man, identified by shop owners simply as "Curwy", lined the complex's parking lot – opposite Livingstone Hospital – with stones, before embarking on his very own version of breaking bad.

Build It administration clerk Melissa Meyer joined in a chorus of chatter among complex tenants and customers about the suspect yesterday, saying "he had been acting up earlier this [last] week, vowing he would make sure we remembered him.

"He is here every day, kicking up a performance regularly," Meyer said. "Just [last] week, he was telling anybody he could find that he 'wants us to know who he is and he will make sure we remember him'.

"Well, nobody is going to forget him after today, but this was not the way to go about it.

"Shop owners are worried about their stock.

"Luckily, none of the windows were completely shattered. All of them just have these impact marks from the stones," she said. - Tremaine van Aardt