Another week and once again reports of crime in the gated security areas of Laudium and Erasmia continue, despite desperate security measures by the respective neighbourhoods to close off their streets to curb the crime problem.
In one of the latest incidents of such crime reported to the Laudium Sun, four would be thieves entered a small apartment block in Erasmia in the early hours of last Saturday morning (Feb 1). The thieves managed to drive into the area at around 3am, despite security gates and without being noticed by the so called police and private security patrollers, then targeted one of the residential complexes on Van Der Wall Street, Erasmia. Hamja Patel one of the tenants of the 6 unit block of flats on Van Der Wall Street, explained further to the Laudium Sun, “It was in the early part of the morning when we were all fast asleep at around 3:20am when four thieves tried to break in into our flat, through the front door. Fortunately they did not manage to get in. We saw the CCTV footage that they got into the yard by lifting the front main gate off its rail, which is how they gained access to the complex. They then managed to break one of our door locks of the front door, but as they were trying to force open the door, one of our neighbours fortunately heard the noises and peeped through his window. That is when he saw the thieves at our front door and he immediately screamed very loudly, which woke me up. I knew that there was some problem and immediately got out of bed, putting on the room lights. I then heard the sound of running steps and when I looked out from my window, I saw the thieves running out from the front gate and according to the CCTV footage they jumped into a white Toyota Aygo, which was waiting for them. By the blessing of the Almighty, nothing serious happened, and they did not manage to come into our flat. I think that they stole something from the yard as they ran out, which was laying there. We thought that with all these gates and walls being put up all over Erasmia, we will now live safely, but it does not seem likely that this crime will ever stop in our area, if the police do not increase patrols.”
Nearby resident, Anas Patel (brother of Hamja) who lives in the same block of flats on Van Der Wall Street, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime rate in Erasmia is beyond terrible and we are not safe, even after all these security gates closing off streets have been installed. Crime was supposed to decrease, but all I hear from the neighbourhood WhatsApp Crime Group is that crime is not decreasing. Instead, the records for house break-ins seem to be sky-high recently. As a community, we must stop the crime before all these criminals take over Laudium and Erasmia. It is obvious that we cannot depend on our local police and the private patrollers to protect us. Therefore we need to go back to the drawing board and implement additional security measures.”
Rahim Haswari, one of the neighbours on Van Der Wall Street commented, “There is no security guard patrolling this street and at night the other side of the street gate remains open. There is no system in place. Anyone can do anything, and criminals have more power than law-abiding citizens in this country. The crime must stop. We are tired of all the breakins and other crimes happening in our community.”
Zaheer Fareed, also of Van Der Wall Street, said, “I quickly woke up when the attempted break-in happened. I saw these four thieves quickly get into a car and drive away. They weren’t able to get into the house because we, the neighbours, woke up immediately when we heard the noise.”
Attempts to get hold of Pritesh Bhana, Erasmia CPF Chairperson were unsuccessful.