When Walmer Sergeant Xoliswa Xhanti saw a man walking on the N2 freeway with two children this week, her gut instinct as a victim support centre coordinator told her something was not right.
Thanks to her intuition, she followed up and discovered that the children, two and five, had been taken without permission.
Xhanti stopped the trio on Monday and took them to her police station, said Eastern Cape police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu.
The man indicated he was their father and took Xhanti to a house in Motherwell, where family members verified his explanation.
The children were left at the house.
Captain Karen Nel had seen the children at the station and realised later that evening that they were the same children that someone from Jeffreys Bay was looking for, according to a social media post, said Naidu.
The father allegedly took them around three days earlier without the mother’s permission.
Xhanti and Nel returned to the house in Motherwell on Tuesday to remove the children.
"These female officers and other female members bathed the children, dressed them up in clean clothes and bought them food, snacks and toys before handing them back to their much relieved and elated mother," said Naidu.
"All children should be safe, well cared for and loved. Protecting children is one of the most important tasks of the police. Every officer and member of police should understand his or her duty to protect children as part of his or her day-to-day business."