Thieves climb onto moving truck, steal bags of sugar

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A teen passenger on a South African road captured video showing a gang of thieves climbing onto the back of a moving truck to steal the goods it hauled.

Tom Kruger, 15, who was riding in the passenger sear of mother Libby Kruger's car, posted a video to Facebook showing the scene they witnessed while driving Friday from Port Elizabeth to East London.

The video shows the truck swerving back and forth on the road while thieves cling to the back and take packages from the covered trailer. The mother and son said the men used knives to cut through the tarp covering the trailer and toss packages to the ground.

"We saw four males on the back of the truck. One of them jumped off fairly quickly, but the other three remained," Libby Kruger told News24. She said the truck was traveling about 15 mph at the time of the video.

Kruger said the two cars traveling directly behind the truck appeared to be attempting to prevent the thieves from retrieving the bags. She said the men had accomplices stationed at the side of the road attempting to retrieve the tossed packages.

Kruger said she drove away from the scene when the thieves started throwing rocks at the following cars.

Douw Steyn, operational manager at Kestell Logistics, said the truck belongs to his company and was transporting sugar on a route the company does not normally use. He said the thieves managed to throw a total 28 bags from the truck.

Steyn said he was on the phone with the driver at the time of the incident.

"I know it was reckless, but I asked the driver to snake and try and throw them off. There is always the possibility of a hijacking, so the outcome could have been far worse," he said. "My driver deserves an A+."