With the festive season fast approaching, residents in the Laudium/Erasmia area have reported a spike in the number of crimes taking place in the area.
While the local police and CPF remain numb (and even dumb) concerning the release of crime patterns in the area, residents have reported an increase in various crimes, from house robberies to petty theft. Residents have also reported a marked increase in the number of nyaopes loitering around, who residents say are responsible for the increase in petty theft in the area.
In one of the latest incidents of petty theft reported to the Laudium Sun for stats purposes, an unknown thief or thieves stole an electric cable, feeding into a gate motor, from a home on the busy Emerald Street in Laudium. The theft which occurred this past Saturday night (Nov 8) at around 7pm has once more raised concerns’ of residents about the lack of police and CPF patrols in the area.
Homeowner, Vashnee Padayachee, of Emerald Street, Laudium, explained to the Laudium Sun, “I was inside my house on Saturday evening when I heard a strange noise coming from the front gate, but I didn’t go out to check because Emerald Street is such a busy street. I thought it was just noise coming from the passing cars or something happening on the street, so I ignored it and continued with what I was doing. About an hour later, when my son came home from work at around 8pm, he had a problem opening the remote gate. That is when we found that the power cable of our gate motor had been stolen. This left the gate motor completely non-functional and we struggled to open and close the gate properly. I then realised that the sound I heard earlier at around 7pm, must have been the time when the cable theft took place. Crime has become extremely high in Laudium and our street seems to be one of the worst affected areas. This, despite Emerald Street being one of the busiest streets in Laudium, with people always walking or driving past at all hours. Because of this, it’s very hard to tell who lives in this area and who doesn’t. Many vagrants are also constantly roaming around and it’s difficult to know whose intentions are good and whose are bad. Even though the police station is located just nearby, we hardly ever see any police cars patrolling our street. This is very concerning, because the criminals seem to act freely without any fear of being caught. Honestly, I don’t think gating our street will make any difference, since it is one of the main routes in Laudium and experiences heavy traffic. It would be difficult to control access even if gates were installed. Besides, many of the other streets that have implemented gating are still struggling with high crime. In fact, in some cases, crime has increased after the gates were installed. People thought that gating would bring safety and peace of mind, but unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way. It is so sad to see how things have become in Laudium. We used to feel safe in our homes and community, but now it’s the opposite. Almost every day we hear about thefts, break-ins and other criminal activity. People are not even reporting these cases to the police, as the police do not bother catching the criminals.”
Irshad Shaikh of Emerald Street, told the Laudium Sun, “Crime in this area is really out of control and something serious needs to be done about it. Every week we hear about thefts, break-ins and other incidents and it’s affecting everyone in our community. We are living in fear and even simple things like leaving home or parking a car have become risky. The authorities must take immediate action to curb the rising crime and protect residents. We all deserve to feel safe and secure in our own homes and neighbourhood.”
