Residents of Erasmia continue to suffer sleepless nights, due to the ongoing crime and are once more calling on the local police, the CPF and private security patrollers, to beef up patrols in the area.
This follows yet more incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun by residents, for crime stats purposes, so that the community is informed and can take the necessary precautions, wherever possible.
In one of the latest incidents, a home on Kalkheuwel Street was invaded by at least two black males, who broke into the property while the owners were away for the evening. The break-in which was partially captured on CCTV, took place this past Sunday evening (July 20), at around 8:30pm, when the thieves broke the main gate leading into the property and then forcefully opened the front door to gain access to the house. Despite the street having security street gates, the thieves managed to get away with several valuable items, without being spotted by any of the security patrollers. Concerns have been raised as to how did the thieves know that there was no one at home at the time and the possibility that the houses in the area are being watched, has been raised.
Shaheen Shamshoodeen, owner of the targeted Kalkheuwel Street home, told the Laudium Sun, “My family and I were not at home on Sunday, as we were out on a family outing. We left at around 6pm. When we returned later that evening, we discovered that our main gate had been tampered with and was broken. Upon entering the house, we found that the front door had also been forced open. We immediately checked the CCTV footage and saw that two African black males had broken into our house at around 8:30pm. I am not sure if there were more thieves involved, as a lot of valuable items were stolen. Crime is really bad in our area and it is disappointing that there is a lack of police patrols on our street. I hope that there will now be more police patrolling, so that the situation improves.”
Mohammed Suliman of Kalkheuwel Street, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime in our area is too high. There have been many break-ins in our area and we are all very scared to even stay in our own homes these days, because crime is at an all-time high and it is worrisome that there are no or very little police or private security patrols in our area. The gating system of closing off streets is not working at all. Because of the ongoing crime, we hardly go out anymore, as we never know when thieves might break into our homes. It seems like these thieves are watching us and are aware when we leave our homes. There have to be proper laws in place and more frequent patrolling in our neighbourhood. This area is becoming unliveable day by day. A lot of people are moving out of Erasmia, due to the high crime rate. We are elderly people and we don’t have anywhere else to go. We just have to deal with all this. I hope we receive better security from the police and support from the local CPF so that we are not forced to move elsewhere.”
Semira Mohammed of Kalkheuwel Street said, “The crime in our area is out of control and it seems to be unstoppable right now. We have heard about lots of recent break-ins through the Laudium Sun and it’s truly frightening to see what trauma our community is going through. This ongoing crime must stop if we want to live in a safe and healthy environment. We can’t continue like this! We need to raise our children in a crime-free neighbourhood, and that’s only possible if we have strong leaders to guide us. Otherwise, we’re going nowhere. Every single day, crime is happening and no one seems to be stopping it. There must be a permanent solution to this issue. Right now, it feels like we are living in a jail, while the criminals are free outside and they are the ones ruling our communities.”
Aman Mohammed told the Laudium Sun, “It is really scary to hear about all this crime on our street and in other areas of Erasmia and Laudium. We have to do something to stop this ongoing crime, because tomorrow my house could get attacked or the house of my neighbour could get attacked. We need to be united and tackle crime together. If we don’t act now, we will not be able to stop all the crime, then I don’t think it will ever be easy in the future to combat crime.”
