The surrounding areas of Laudium and Erasmia continue to also be plagued by crime, with many residents believing that this state of affairs is due to the mushrooming of informal settlements in the area.
The area of Sunderland Ridge is thus no exception, when it comes to crime. This follows another break-in at a business premises situated on the R55 and corner of Wierda Road, opposite Sunderland Ridge. The business premises, known as ‘Public Storage-Zwartkop’ has been broken into a few times now, with the latest being last Wednesday night (Nov 27) despite the premises having security guards on a 24 hour basis on the premises. It is believed that the gang of thieves who arrived in a truck, first tied up the guards and thereafter forcefully opened a number of storage units, which are hired mostly by private people to store excess furniture or other valuables. The thieves then freely made their getaway after loading a number of items including furniture onto their vehicle. According to a security guard who works nearby, who gave his name as Simon, the gang of thieves arrived shortly before midnight on Wednesday at around 11pm and after confronting the two guards on duty tied them up and forced open some of the storage units. When the Laudium Sun went to the premises after the break-in, the security guard on duty refused to comment, saying that they have strict instructions from their bosses not to talk to anyone about the break-in. Furthermore whilst at the premises, the Laudium Sun team spotted the manager of the business, Jan Duvenhage who lives on site, but when Jan saw the team he fled to his place of stay. A police official at the Erasmia Police Station, under whose jurisdiction Sunderland Ridge falls, confirmed to the Laudium Sun that there was a charge opened of ‘business burglary’ which took place at the Public Storage facility near Sunderland Ridge, adding “The police are investigating and no one was arrested for this crime. The police are following all leads which can assist in the arrest of these suspects.”
*Just last month, the Laudium Sun reported on a case of robbery at the same business, public Storage. (See the Laudium Sun October 25 issue). At that time, the manager Jan Duvenhage who was on site on the night of the attack, told the Laudium Sun that his security guards reported that a gang of about 20 armed thugs in a truck entered the premises at around 7:30pm. Jan added that his guards were tied with cable ties. He then proceeded to his living quarters at around 11:45pm where the thugs knocked him down after he pressed the panic button. Jan added that a large quantity of diesel, gas, cigarettes, sugar, maize meal and cake flour were amongst the items stolen from a number of the storage facilities. This followed a robbery that took place on December 10, 2023. Jan said that in that instance the robbers were alerted of the operations of the business by two of their own security guards, which was proven through a polygraph test conducted by the company. Jan also stated at the time, that “there was no point for the security guards to carry their own firearms as these very weapons could in turn be used against them, considering that most of the robbers come in numbers.”
*Attempts to get hold of the Erasmia CPF Chairperson, Pritesh Bhana, for a comment, were unsuccessful.