It is apparent that the local police are not competent enough or interested enough to fight crime in the Laudium/Erasmia area, as more and more incidents of crime are being reported to the Laudium Sun, including in the gated security areas.
While the local police remain numb or rather dumb on the ongoing weekly reports of crime, fortunately more and more residents are approaching the Laudium Sun for stats purposes and so that others are warned about the ongoing crime in the area.
This follows the local police choosing to be silent on a recent break-in at a business premises on 13th Ave, in Laudium, where a large quantity of goods was stolen. The breakin at Fizzym Gold & Diamond Exchange, which took place just past midnight this past Sunday morning (Feb 2) has left the owners of
the shop devastated, as the thieves virtually wiped out the stock from the premises, without any police or private security patrollers noticing the thieves driving into the area or leaving from the premises.
targeted by thieves in the early hours of this past Sunday morning at around 12:30am.
The owner of Fizzym Gold & Diamond Exchange Monye Kassim (believed to be a Nigerian) told the Laudium Sun, “We have cameras in the shops and according to the CCTV footage it was around 12:30 am when two thieves broke into our shop from the roof and stole all the stock of clothes. We only sell
clothes in our shop, but maybe the thieves thought we were selling gold and diamonds also. One thief was inside the shop and was passing the goods to the other thief, who was on the roof. They left very few things behind and they even smashed the counters before running away. They must have had a vehicle to carry away so much stock. It was highly traumatizing, considering we work so hard, but the thieves got away with our hard-earned money. We don’t know where to start with the business again, since there is no stock left. The crime in Laudium is beyond terrible, and the police must step up to stop these crimes. A lot of crime is also going unnoticed, which the community is not even aware of, other than reading about some of the crimes in the Laudium Sun. As a community, we must work together to stop this ongoing crime as we are all targets of these criminals. The thieves stole over three hundred thousand rand worth of goods and I don’t know how we will ever recover from this big theft.”
goods at the store.
13th Avenue resident, Rafiq Dawood, said, “The crime rate in Laudium is extremely high and we know as we hear about it all the time. As residents, we are not safe even after the gates on the streets have been installed. This gating isn’t helping at all in Laudium, as thieves still come into the area and steal.
There must be a security guard on every street and at every gate, as without this the crime situation will not improve. Crime in Laudium is not decreasing, it’s increasing. Yes, we heard about the break-in at Fizzym Gold, it’s very sad. I hope the police can catch those criminals.”
A shopkeeper on 13th Avenue, Laudium, Osama Hossain, told the Laudium Sun, “There are no security guards patrolling the street and at night the street gate remains open. There are no rules or regulations regarding the security gating system, anyone can come and go as they please. Thieves come through these gates day or night without being stopped or without being questioned.”
