With Laudium residents still having sleepless nights, fearing falling victim to crime, it is obvious that the Laudium CPF, under the ‘sleepy eyes’ of Shaheen Wahab, is a disaster in the making.
The CPF has certainly not been effective in formulating policies together with the local police to curb crime in the area, with residents retreating behind locked doors and gated streets. Besides ‘showing off’ at public functions as ‘glorified car guards in blue,’ posting selfies of themselves, the CPF lacks the capacity to represent the community when addressing concerns of crime with the police, including lack of police visibility.
This follows another week, where yet again, new incidents of crime have been reported to the Laudium Sun, for stats purposes, so that other residents are informed of the dire situation the community is facing.
In one of the latest incidents of crime reported, two thieves entered a gated neighbourhood area and broke into the 12th Avenue home of Mohammed Aslam in Laudium, the previous Sunday evening at around 9pm, while the family was out. Despite claims by the CPF that they have patrollers in the area, neither the Police nor the CPF Patrollers spotted the thieves entering the house on a quiet Sunday evening, nor spotted them leaving with their loot, which included an undisclosed amount of cash, jewellery and some electronic items.
Aslam told the Laudium Sun, “My family and I were not at home at the time as we had gone out. When we came back at around 11pm on Sunday night, we were shocked to find the front door open and broken, more so as our home is within the boundaries of closed gated streets. We immediately knew that thieves had entered our home and were actually scared that perhaps they were still inside. After a while I went in and could not believe my eyes, seeing our house ransacked, with every room turned upside down. I then checked the CCTV footage and that’s how I saw that there were two thieves who can clearly be seen in the footage breaking into my house. The thieves, both African males, stole a lot of valuables including jewellery, cash and several electronic items from our house. My wife is still shaken and trying to heal from the trauma and as a family, we are completely shattered and heartbroken after this incident. This crime has really shaken us emotionally and we are living in fear right now. Our street is an old and quiet area and I just can’t understand how the criminals are getting information about who is at home and who is not. It looks like some kind of inside job, because these thieves seem to know exactly when to strike. To be honest, we can’t trust anyone anymore, not even the security companies or patrollers or even neighbours. It feels like no one is safe living in Laudium and we can no longer depend on anyone to watch out for each other. The crime in Laudium has really gone to another level. Almost every day we hear of break-ins, robberies, or some kind of crime happening nearby and the situation does not seem to be improving. Even closing our street areas with gates did not help. The politicians and the police need to take this issue seriously, because
people like us are suffering and living in constant fear. We are hardworking citizens who just want peace and safety in our homes. The present situation has become unbearable. On that Sunday night, when I entered my house and saw the state it was in, I was lost for words. My heart sank. I felt completely helpless and angry at the same time. It’s a feeling you can’t describe until it happens to you. All the years of hard work, the things we bought with love and care were just taken in a few minutes by greedy thieves who don’t care about anyone’s pain. Now, we can’t even leave our house peacefully, because every time we step out, we are scared that someone might break in again. My wife barely sleeps at night and even small noises make her anxious. This incident has really changed our lives and the way we look at our safety. Crime has truly taken over and we feel abandoned, with no one to rely on for protection.”
is shattered after the burglary incident and is
living in fear right now.
Shaneela Ahmed of 12th Avenue told the Laudium Sun, “Crime has really become too much now. Despite having so many security gates and measures in place, we still experience frequent break-ins in our community. It’s honestly terrible, because it makes you wonder what the point is of having security and closing off the streets with gates, if crime continues to rise. The situation is getting worse each day. Instead of crime decreasing, it’s actually increasing and people are living in constant fear. Something really needs to be done before it gets completely out of control.”
Ahmed Shaikh, also of 12th Avenue, told the Laudium Sun, “Crime is extremely high and we are now hearing about break-ins almost every single day. It’s becoming a norm in our area and that’s really worrying. Law enforcement needs to take stronger action, because criminals are taking over our community. We feel unsafe in our own homes and it seems like nothing is being done to stop these ongoing criminal incidents.”
