Another week has passed and again the Laudium Sun has the unpleasant task of reporting on more crime that has been committed in the Laudium area, this past week, resulting in yet more residents being traumatized after falling victim to the continuous scourge of crime in the area.
Just how much more should residents tolerate poor policing, resulting in the area being unsafe, both during the day and at night. in one of the many incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun this past week, an armed robbery took place during the early hours of the morning, last Friday (Feb 18), at a home in Laudium.
Shanaaz Ebrahim who has been residing on 4th Avenue for more than 10 years told the Laudium Sun, “During the early hours of Friday morning, we were fast asleep, when all of a sudden my sleep broke after hearing my phone ring. At first I thought I was hearing my phone in a dream, but it kept on ringing and then suddenly my eyes opened. I answered my phone without even checking who was calling me at that early time of the morning. So, when I answered, I was surprised to hear it was Lorraine, the lady who lives at the outbuilding in our yard. She was hysterical on the phone and breathing heavily, but was speaking softly. In an almost whispering tone, she told me ‘Appa, please be careful there are guys with guns in the yard.’ Before I could ask her anything further, her phone went off. I was terrified as I did not know if the thugs caught her talking to me on the phone and cut the call. I also did not know if I should wake my husband up, because I kept on thinking what would happen if he made some noise when I woke him up and the thieves would hear him. I was panicking as I then thought what if the thieves were planning to get into our house. So I decided it was best that I got my husband up. Luckily he woke up from his sleep quietly. So he quickly locked our room door, whilst still thinking what to do next. But then at about 4am, Lorraine called again to say that the thugs had gone out of the yard. My husband then switched all the room lights and outside lights on, just in case the thugs were still in the yard, so that they would know that we were awake. We waited for a few minutes and then we went out to speak to Lorraine and her husband. We have been renting the front portion of the house for the past 10 years and Lorraine and her husband, who now have two children, have been renting the outbuilding, also for the past 10 years.”
Lorraine told the Laudium Sun that she and her husband, Matome Ntshane, were sleeping when all of a sudden they awoke after hearing strange noises coming from the direction of their door. She added, “It was like someone trying to forcefully open the door. So when my husband went towards the door, one of the thugs, who was still outside, heard his footsteps and said to him not to try to open the door as he [the thug] had a gun and would shoot him. Just then, another thug managed to open our room window with something and this thug moved the curtain and pointed his gun at us. We were so scared and pleaded with him not to shoot us. Our room is small and there was no way of escaping, so we complied to the thug’s demands. He demanded that we hand over our cellphones and money. Without hesitation, as we were terrified, we gave him both our cellphones and the little money we had to buy bread and milk and a few other items the next day. We were just praying that our two little children did not wake up at that time, as this could have caused the thugs to become agitated and they could have even shot us. Thank God that the kids were asleep and didn’t see anything. I am so shocked by this whole incident. This is the first time during the 10 years we are living in Laudium, that we were attacked by crimnals. Laudium is becoming very dangerous these days and the police really have to do something to stop this crime.”
