Post office thieves sentenced two days after arrest

Within two days of being arrested, two thieves who stole R100,000 from the Paterson Post Office were given a one-year jail term. 

Elroy Kleinhans, 22, and Donovan Ferreira, 18, who is the postmaster’s son, were both sentenced after pleading guilty on Monday.

The two appeared in the Paterson Magistrate's Court as first time offenders where they were then sentenced.

Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said the two were arrested on Saturday afternoon after stealing a bag of money from a safe on Friday night.

Beetge said Ferreira stole the building and safe keys from his house and then conjured up a plan with Kleinhans.

According to police, the alarm was not activated as they often left a fox terrier inside the building as a security measure.

Beetge said the money was left in the safe on Friday by the postmaster.

“She returned the following day and the money was missing. All other items in the safe were still there and the safe was undamaged and locked,” he said.

“There were also no signs of forced entry to the premises.”

During the investigation, detectives suspected an inside job and after questioning Ferreira he confessed.

“Ferreira had heard his mother talking about the money that had arrived at the post office earlier that day. He then consulted with his neighbour [Kleinhans] and they came up with a plan to take the money,” he said.

“During the course of Friday night, at about 10pm, he took the keys from the house and both went to the post office where they unlocked the doors and stole the money from the safe. The two then split the money and left.”

Motherwell Cluster Commander, Major General Dawie Rabie, cautioned business owners to take extra-precautions when dealing with large sums of money.

“We ask owners to change their routines and alarm codes as well as set their alarms to prevent anyone from knowing how to gain access undetected,” he said.

“It is a massive security risk for one person to keep all the keys to any business premises that keeps large sums of money on site.

"Such a negligent situation is dangerous to the person who has the keys and also could lead to abductions and robberies of the person – who will become a target.

"We urge the business fraternity to re-evaluate their security systems and procedures to prevent incidents like this from repeating itself," he said.