Last Thursday, Cape Town’s Table Mountain turned into a giant maze for a thrilling manhunt. Three burglars ran into the wild after robbing a home. Police, park rangers, and cool gadgets like drones and K9 dogs chased them. Two bad guys were caught, but one is still out there, hiding in the mountain’s tricky paths.
What happened during the Cape Town mountain manhunt?
Last Thursday, a large-scale manhunt unfolded on Cape Town’s Table Mountain after three burglars fled into the wilderness. The operation involved police, park rangers, and advanced technology like thermal drones and K9 units, leading to the capture of two suspects, while one remains at large, highlighting the mountain’s role as both refuge and trap.
1. Dawn in Disguise
The first blush of light over the Atlantic is usually a postcard ritual: paragliders spiral above Lion’s Head and the aroma of ristretto drifts upward from Camps Bay cafés. Last Thursday the script flipped – colourful canopies were replaced by olive-green uniforms, and the only scent on the breeze was the metallic tang of aviation fuel from a police drone hovering like a wasp.
Just after half-past four, a barefoot homeowner in upper Bakoven heard a pane explode, then the chilling click-clack of a slide being racked. Three silhouettes slipped into the fynbos, leaving behind a ransacked study, a terrified housekeeper, and a trail of size-nine prints aimed squarely at the Twelve Apostles ridge.
Within minutes the mountain changed from playground to crime scene. It was the biggest ground search Cape Town had witnessed since the 2015 Pollsmoor jailbreak, when two escapees spent four nights in sandstone caves less than a kilometre away. Once again, Table Mountain National Park became both refuge and trap – its gullies, silver-tree tunnels and vertical kloofs a thousand-pocketed hiding place for anyone desperate enough to climb into them.
2. The Terrain That Swallows People
Stand on the victim’s deck and you stare up at a cliff-to-coast chunk of earth that vaults 600 m in the first kilometre. Lawn turns to indigenous forest in the time it takes to boil an egg. Just beyond the last mansion, a bone-dry winter streambed cuts through ironwood and wild olive before colliding with the Pipe Track – a flat, family-friendly path blasted in the 1890s to tend the city’s water mains. Step left off that path and you hit “the skateboard,” a 45-degree slope where even trail runners sprout prayer beads. From there, options branch like capillaries: slide back into someone’s infinity pool or grunt upward toward the upper cable station in under an hour.
The burglars chose up. At 05:09 a motion camera at Kasteelspoort saddle snapped three hooded figures; one clutched a lime-green reusable shopping bag that clinked with stolen bric-a-brac – two laptops, jewellery and an antique signal pistol. The feed hit TMNP’s control room and ignited a domino of closures: first the summit platform, then India-Venster route, finally every footpath west of the Cableway.
Containment hinged on a century-old truth: the mountain is a 3-D maze, but it is finite. Rangers know every choke point, every spur that funnels fugitives into natural amphitheatres. The trick is to shrink the maze faster than the runner can learn it.
3. The Hunt Blueprint: Contain, Canalise, Contact
SANParks’ aerial anti-poaching crew was already airborne when the call arrived. The pilot, a former gunship instructor, spun an EC-120 Colibri toward the Apostles ridge. FLIR imagery lit up three ruby blobs ascending at hiker-plus speed. Protocol clicked in:
- Contain : Rangers sealed Constantia Nek and Suikerbossie saddle exits.
- Canalise : Dog teams pushed uphill while the chopper blocked descent, squeezing the trio toward a chosen bowl where cliffs make arrest easiest.
- Contact : A 22-strong Tactical Response Team prepared to rope in.
Then the mountain threw a curve. The predicted southeaster arrived early, gusting 55 km/h along the ridge and grounding every quadcopter. The helicopter could still hover, but only at 200 ft – low enough for a lucky pistol round to matter. Command killed the engines, switching to boot leather and canine noses.
4. A City Forced to Rewind Its Morning
By sunrise, suburban routines unravelled. Camps Bay Primary cancelled a Grade-5 penguin outing; Uber drivers moaned about an 18 % drop in dawn fares as joggers traded ridge trails for sea-level promenades. The Mount Nelson’s breakfast terrace lost six sunrise-photo reservations before the coffee even brewed.
WhatsApp voice notes flew faster than the gulls: “They’re behind my pool!” “I swear I heard shots!” – no rounds were actually fired; the pop was a pellet gun shooing baboons away from police dogs. Paragliders sat cross-legged on the sand, forming a human pyramid that spelled CAPTURE in protest, a scene that hit TikTok before the first suspect was even cuffed.
5. Fur, Fangs and Firmware
At 06:12 two Belgian Malinois – Kia and Ghost – were unleashed near the “Dinosaur Tracks” fossil slab. Kia slammed into a rigid sit, nose toward a clump of red disas. Beneath the blooms lay a warm 9 mm magazine, spring locked forward – either empty or down to its final round. The discovery told rangers the odds of a firefight had dropped, letting teams tighten the noose with bolder moves.
Meanwhile, a civilian fixed-wing drone launched illegally from Glen Beach streamed 4K footage to a public Facebook page at 160 m AGL. Viewers crowdsourced a lime-green flash behind Blinkwater Peak; coordinates reached the Joint Operations Centre within four minutes, proving that armchair sleuths can sometimes tilt the battlefield.
6. Old-School Tricks, New-School Tech
Mountain hermits whisper about a hidden chamber called the “Postbox,” a vertical slit behind a perpetual rainbow waterfall roomy enough for four men. Whether the burglars knew it or not, by 07:30 they had split. One aimed for the cable station, stripping clothes to dull his heat signature; another hugged west-facing cliffs still in dawn shadow; the third tried to traverse the front face toward Platteklip, the busiest trail on the massif – a gamble that crowds could be both cover and witness.
Thermal drones watched it all, turning centuries-old escape lore into data points on a tablet. Yet mountain wisdom still matters: shade, wind angle and fynbos scent can defeat even the priciest FLIR camera. Searchers had to marry silicon and sandstone, algorithm and instinct.
7. Mistakes, Mayhem and the First Bracelets
At 08:02 a Swiss ultra-runner – ironically training for The UTCT – ducked under closure tape and nearly head-butted Suspect #2, now shirtless, blood-striped and still lugging the green bag. The runner, an ex-cop, recognised the antique signal gun for the non-lethal toy it was but chose retreat over heroics, blasting downhill at 3-min kilometres while Strava streamed every footfall. His breadcrumb trail gave JOC a pinpoint fix; TRT rope teams swarmed a ledge system nicknamed “Spider’s Web.”
By 09:17 a ranger posing as a botanical artist – pink day-pack, moleskine in hand – sketched proteas until a twitchy figure fumbled with a zipper upslope. A silent panic button stitched into his shoulder strap brought a “Protea sandwich” of tactical officers. Suspect #1 surrendered without fuss; the signal gun’s ornate barrel now speckled with rust-like fynbos sap.
8. One Down, Two to Go – and the Mountain Fights Back
With cuffs on the first runner, command redeployed 40 % of manpower to lower slopes, fearing a car-jack on Victoria Road. Spotter planes circled in figure-eights above Blinkwater, then drifted toward Grootkop, highest Apostle at 962 m. Analysts guessed the remaining pair might crest the ridge and drop into Orange Kloof, a prohibited watershed that feeds an uninhabited valley where even ranger patrols are quarterly events.
Weather turned prosecutor. Forecasters warned of 70 km/h gusts and a 4 °C wind-chill drop – hypothermia territory for hoodie-clad fugitives. Veterans call this the “golden four”: after four hours of exposure, dexterity falls 30 %, turning nimble climbers into stumbling quarry. The mountain doesn’t just hide people; it can also testify against them.
9. Carbon, Canines and the Cost of Capture
Each helicopter sortie guzzles ~180 L of Jet-A and spits 475 kg of CO₂ into the sky. By mid-morning, four orbits had emitted the carbon equivalent of a Cape Town–Durban flight. Conscious of the optics, rangers rolled out electric dirt-bikes on lower jeep tracks – fat-tyred, almost silent, able to nose into ravines unreachable without a 4×4.
Even penguins 30 km away felt the ripple: officials temporarily herded Boulders Beach birds into pens so drone buzz wouldn’t trigger nest abandonment – proof that urban crime can ricochet through entire ecosystems. Meanwhile, 17 restaurants along the Camps Bay mile tallied 420 cancelled brunches; one Uber Eats courier tried paddle-board delivery across the surf, only to be waved off by armed response. By noon the day’s lost revenue sat at R1.8 million and climbing faster than the wind.
10. The Final Stretch and the One Who Got Away
At 10:42 thermal eyes found Suspect #2 wedged under a boulder on Grootkop’s north face. Two abseilers dropped from the ridge; a dislodged microwave-sized rock cartwheeled 200 m, narrowly missing the dog unit. After 27 seconds of scuffle, helmet-cam footage showed the man begging for water – dehydration wins more surrenders than rifles ever will.
That left the carrier of the lime-green bag. His trail vanished where the 1898 pipeline ribs meet the contour path; all that remained was a shredded hoodie snagged on rusted iron. A bloodhound lost scent on sun-baked sandstone – ideal conditions for evaporation. Tracker doctrine says the “last mile” is the most perilous: a cornered fugitive may car-jack, invade a new house, or blend into the tourist swirl lining Victoria Road for iced coffee. Police narrowed the coastal highway to single-lane checkpoints, scanning every SUV and scooter, while detectives wondered whether he had already slipped the mountain noose entirely.
Magistrates granted a 48-hour warrant extension, letting rangers enter private estates without knocking. If the third man isn’t caught before dusk, Table Mountain National Park will slam into Phase-3 lockdown: gates shut at 17:00, cableway frozen, night permits shredded. Hiking forums already recycle 2020’s “black-alert” survival crib sheet: carry ID, pack an extra thermal, and expect to justify every footprint to someone with a badge and a breathless dog.
The mountain has returned to postcard calm – paragliders circle, cappuccino machines hiss, yesterday’s footprints are today’s ephemeral art. But the ridges remember, the heat-seeking lenses are still charged, and somewhere in the fynbos a single set of tracks may yet write the epilogue to Cape Town’s most public game of hide-and-seek.
What happened during the Cape Town mountain manhunt?
Last Thursday, a large-scale manhunt unfolded on Cape Town’s Table Mountain after three burglars fled into the wilderness. The operation involved police, park rangers, and advanced technology like thermal drones and K9 units, leading to the capture of two suspects, while one remains at large, highlighting the mountain’s role as both refuge and trap.
What triggered the manhunt on Table Mountain?
The manhunt began just after 4:30 AM when a homeowner in upper Bakoven reported a home invasion. Three burglars, after ransacking a study and terrifying a housekeeper, fled into the fynbos towards the Twelve Apostles ridge, prompting an immediate response from authorities.
How did the authorities try to contain the burglars?
Authorities implemented a “Contain, Canalise, Contact” strategy. Rangers sealed key exits like Constantia Nek and Suikerbossie saddle, dog teams pushed the suspects uphill, and a police helicopter initially helped guide them towards an area where cliffs would aid arrest. They also quickly closed the summit platform and various footpaths to limit escape routes.
What challenges did the search teams face during the manhunt?
The search teams faced several challenges, including the mountain’s complex 3-D maze-like terrain with its gullies and vertical kloofs. An early southeasterly wind gusting at 55 km/h grounded quadcopters and forced the helicopter to fly at a dangerous altitude. Later, the weather turned colder, posing a risk of hypothermia for the fugitives, and the sun-baked sandstone made it difficult for K9 units to track scents.
How did technology and traditional methods blend in the search?
The manhunt utilized a mix of advanced technology and old-school tactics. Drones with FLIR (Forward-Looking InfraRed) imagery provided aerial surveillance, K9 units like Belgian Malinois (Kia and Ghost) tracked scents, and motion cameras at strategic points like Kasteelspoort saddle helped identify the suspects’ movements. Simultaneously, rangers used their intimate knowledge of the mountain’s choke points and terrain, and even a ranger disguised as a botanical artist helped in an arrest.
What is the current status of the remaining burglar?
As of the last update, one burglar is still at large. His trail vanished where the 1898 pipeline ribs meet the contour path, leaving only a shredded hoodie. Police narrowed down coastal highways with checkpoints, and magistrates granted a 48-hour warrant extension to allow rangers into private estates. If the third man isn’t caught before dusk, Table Mountain National Park will enter a Phase-3 lockdown, closing gates and freezing the cableway.
