Fingerprints can bring 'cat burglar' down

A "CAT burglar" with expensive tastes will stand trial later this month after he allegedly burgled 20 houses in Port Elizabeth's upmarket suburbs.

In all of the incidents, the houses were burgled while the occupants slept, with them waking up the next morning to find their flat screen TVs, laptops, jewellery and cellphones missing.

On one occasion, saddles worth R25000 were stolen from a smallholding in Sardinia Bay.

The hi-tech alarm systems in some of the houses never went off.

Andile Manzini, 30, who denies the charges, is allegedly linked to all 20 burglaries by fingerprints.

Between September 2012 and March this year, Manzini made his way through Lorraine, Charlo, Mount Pleasant, Lovemore Heights, Sardinia Bay, Broadwood, Kamma Heights and Lovemore Park, allegedly burgling the houses while the residents were asleep.

The same modus operandi was used each time. Manzini would allegedly target houses with aluminium window frames and remove the rubber around the pane before taking out the glass. - Kathryn Kimberley