IT’S not often you get a telephone call telling you that three men have been arrested for stealing your zebras.
But that’s what happened to the people at the South African Tourism Board.
“We are holding three men and two zebras,” was all the policeman said down the telephone line.
Apparently a group of three men decided to bring to life a SATB billboard advertisement along the Cromwell Road which challenged drivers to: ‘see a real zebra crossing’. On a billboard three life-size fibreglass zebras were bolted down.
The three men allegedly made their way up to the unfeasibly high billboard and managed to unbolt the wildlife and lower them to the ground.
Unfortunately for them, zebras aren’t equipped with the appropriate metropolitan camouflage and the Old Bill quickly spotted the group. The lads were arrested and the zebras were put out to sunnier pastures in the back garden of the South African Tourism Board’s Wimbledon office. Fortunately SATB sales and marketing manager Basil van Blommestein had a sense of humour and decided not bring charges as the zebras suffered only minor damage.