With SOE orders issued yesterday, police have started work to patrol the city and in the process are recovering stolen goods, most of it white and brown goods, presumably from the Brian Bell warehouse.
Much of the effort is concentrated in the Gerehu area where the warehouse was located.
While random police checks on vehicles saw police confiscating some items, good residents rose up to the call to return items in their possession.
Three trucks belonging to the Brian Bell warehouse were also recovered in the process.
A few residents spoke to us on camera, explaining how they got the items and their reasons for returning them.
One said ”mi pilim bel hevi so maski mi mas returnim. Bikpla tok sori.”
The other said “olgeta samting mipla kisim long en, m mipla returnim.”
Resident Nancy Aipe said “Ol papamama mipla no save, ol pikinini kisim kam so mipla sor na mipla givim bek. Sori stret.”
Interestingly, all those interviewed said the instructions to loot were given to them by police who stood there and watched as the looting unfolded.
They say the looting lasted until 2am and with police providing security, they laid their hands on whatever they could get and said they are happy to return the items.
Nancy said “Ol no save tasol ol polis tok orait long kisim na ol kisim. Ol snap long sait stap.”
A young man in returning a huge television screen said “Mipla go long hap, mipla lukim ol polis kar park stap, ol allowim so, mi go kisim.
“Ol tok hariap, hariap, mi tokim ol ‘isi, ol polis stap’.
“Mipela save, yupla save holim law na strongim city, yupla tok nogat em nogat.”
TV Wan News caught up with Metropolitan Superintendent Silva Sika who was on location with his men carrying out awareness for people to return the goods on good faith before raids are conducted and they are arrested.
“We are not wasting our time, we’re not resting. Gentlemen and ladies, don’t think that you will escape. You are not going to escape. We will still come and follow you. If you are running away from the police, we will still hunt for you. We have come up with all the strategies to maneuver around, to make sure that we capture, we retrieve all the properties,” said the Metropolitan Superintendent.
Sika says all goods returned will be kept as police exhibits at the Brian Bell warehouse for further investigations as they do not have a proper place to keep them.
Police will work to record everything that has been recovered before they are returned to the owners.