Police stole watch, bungled evidence at Pistorius home

File Image of a wrist watch

Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial heard that police officers were clumsy with evidence and even stole a watch from the scene where Reeva Steenkamp was killed, in testimony from an ex-colleague on Friday.

Former station chief Giliam van Rensburg, who retired from the police last year, testified that an officer stole a watch worth as much as $10,000 (7,000 euros), in a damning indictment of his ex-colleagues.
The watch went missing while forensic experts were examining a blood-splattered box containing seven other timepieces and occurred even after Van Rensburg warned his staff against theft.

“I saw those watches and I said this is tempting for any person because this is expensive watches,” he told the court.

Van Rensburg described his reaction when he was later told a watch was gone.

“I said, ‘I can’t believe it. We were just there. How can this watch be gone?’”