When South African traffic police pulled a bus and a trailer over, they were checking the condition of the vehicle. However, this time their haul included 13 cell phone tower batteries in the trailer. Intrigued, they investigated further and found several cell phone tower solar panels under the bus floor.
Cell Phone Tower Batteries on 1,000 Mile Journey
The traffic police investigated their haul further. They traced it to a recent cell phone tower robbery in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, previously Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province.
Quick as a flash, the Zimbabwe national bus driver offered the police a month’s salary to look the other way. But this time, the system held and the criminal is now exploring the delights of a South African prison cell with 15 other suspects. Meanwhile the cell phone tower batteries and panels remain in a police station as evidence.
Criminals Nabbed a Short Distance into Their Journey
Herald LIVE reports the bus and trailer had only travailed 21 miles before the road block stopped them. The rig was destined to travel deep into Zimbabwe after crossing the Beit Bridge border post a 1,000 miles away.
We have reported previously on cell phone tower batteries stolen but not solar panels before. We find this incident deeply concerning because it is not an isolated one. The future of third world energy in Africa relies on community micro-systems exchanging power with the grid.
If battery thieves steal the batteries and panels while the people are tilling fields and herding cattle, then the center cannot hold. We call for a central register of cell phone tower batteries and solar panels. And for Interpol to treat these crimes more seriously, so thieves no longer melt away.
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