Captain Crime Stop

Today I met a super hero. Not Batman. Not Superman. No, no, no. It was South Africa ’s own Captain Crime Stop!!

He was seriously out catching baddies. I met him in the yard of a family who had just been robbed.

It all started at about 6,30am today when three armed robbers ambushed a family in their home in Bassonia (that’s in the South). Two of them got caught, one of which was actually shot by Captain Crime Stop. Seriously!

So who is this dude? And why is he not around more?

Apparently he is very much around, I discovered. He is a working member of the Joburg Flying Squad. Today he was not in his blue police uniform as he busted his hand in a car crash and so has to wear civies as long as it’s all bandaged up.

The captain was with two colleagues when they were summoned to this particular robbery in progress. They moved fast and cornered two of the robbers in somebody’s garden, ordering them to drop their guns. One guy listened and got arrested. The other one yelled back, and told the cops to drop their guns first. Not a wise move. He got popped three times.

I arrived on the scene with a photographer a while later and happily recognized the white-haired, staunchly built man strolling around.

JJ: “Aren’t you the guy who used to be Captain Crime Stop? You did those shows at schools for kids?”

Yip – indeed I was correct. But he hung up his costume/super hero attire a while back.

“I don’t do that stuff anymore. The cops didn’t like it. They said it was too sexually revealing, although the teachers loved it hey,” he said.

“It never worried me though. I mean, I’m a professional and I do wrestling.”

Turns out, he now appears on the SABC 2 wrestling show “WWP Thunderstrike” on Saturdays. He is Tornado.

Weekend wrestler and weekday cop. Who would have thought?