The arrest of former teacher, media executive and alleged sexual predator Willem Breytenbach was nearly a non-event as Breytenbach was nowhere to be found when police arrived at his mother's seaside home in Reebok, Mossel Bay, on Tuesday just after 12:00.
When the police entered the house, it seemed eerily quiet.
But then, the house alarm went off, triggered, as it later turned out, by Breytenbach's mother who pressed the panic button in her distress. Breytenbach was indeed not at home, but at the offices of psychiatrist Dr Pieter Smit in Hartenbos about 9km away.
It was here that he was taken into custody. He was first taken back to the house in Reebok where he remained with the police for a while before emerging in a fresh set of clothes.
Breytenbach was then taken to the Da Gamaskop child protection unit in Mossel Bay for processing - here he emerged handcuffed before being whisked into the building.
He is expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Wednesday or Thursday.