Pretoria - Police have arrested nine suspects in connection with the break-in at Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros's home.
Petros's Bryanston home was burgled on Friday after suspects broke down the front door and stole a plasma TV and electrical appliances. The provincial commissioner's family was home at the time but no one was injured in the incident.
On Saturday, police arrested a 27-year-old Mamelodi man after there was another break-in in Bryanston.
Police and security personnel patrolling the area responded to a house alarm, said provincial head of communications, Brigadier Neville Malila.
After establishing that the house had been burgled, the suspect was arrested on the premises. Two of his accomplices fled.
A car with "housebreaking appliances" was also found on the scene.
"Preliminary investigation at the crime scene has shown similarities in the modus operandi used at the burglary to that of the one that occurred at provincial commissioner's house," Malila said.
Items found in the car were identified as those stolen from Petros's home.
Malila said a further eight suspects were arrested during a follow-up operation in Mamelodi on Sunday night.
They have been arrested for housebreaking and theft, possession of stolen property, as well as buying and selling of suspected stolen property.
"During the operation, police confiscated four plasma TVs, laptops, electronic equipment, portraits and several housebreaking equipment including a bolt cutter and crowbar. One of the plasma screens was positively identified as the one taken in the robbery at the house of the Gauteng provincial commissioner," he added.
All the suspects are expected to appear in court this week.
Police are investigating the suspects' links to other house breakings and robberies in the Sandton area.
