Local residents hoping that the level of crime in the Laudium/Erasmia area will come down in the new year, are already feeling disappointed and despondent.
Residents’ hopes that the police and CPF will ‘pull up their socks’ and be more pro-active in fighting crime this new year have been dashed, with the Laudium Sun having received a number of complaints of incidents of crime in the area, that have already occurred in this early stage of the new year.
In one of the latest reports received, for stats purposes, a car parked outside a home on Laudium’s Gem Str was broken into last Friday afternoon (Jan 16) in broad daylight. More surprisingly (perhaps not surprisingly), the street is gated, yet the thieves managed to break into the Polo car parked outside the house, stealing a number of items from the car, including two HP laptops. Strangely, the two black males (captured on CCTV footage) who stole from the Polo, freely walked to the car and left casually without being noticed by anyone in the area, including the guard at the street gate.
Gem Street homeowner, Sanita Singarum, told the Laudium Sun, “It was my sister’s laptops that were stolen. My sister had come to visit us on Friday at around 2pm. She came for a short visit driving a Polo and at the time her two HP laptops were inside the car. Because she was only visiting briefly and our area has security street gates, we told her not to worry leaving her car outside our house, as we believed that the area was safe due to the street gates. Her car was parked right in front of our house and everything seemed normal at the time. There was no sign of danger or suspicious activity on the street. At around 4pm, my sister was leaving, but when she got to her car, she was totally shocked to see that her car had been broken into and immediately realized that her two laptops were missing. We were all very upset, especially because the theft happened inside a gated area where we, as residents, believe that we are safe. That is why we supported closing off some of the streets with security gates and monitoring others with security guards for residents to enter and leave. We then checked the CCTV footage and that is when we saw what transpired on Friday afternoon. The footage clearly shows two suspects, seemingly Black males, opening the back doors of the Polo and stealing the laptops from inside the car. They did this calmly and without fear, as if they knew that no one would stop them. Seeing the thieves on camera was frightening and disturbing. Our area is gated and Gem Street is a small street, but criminals still came in freely without any fear. Gated areas are supposed to offer protection, yet incidents like this show that these criminals are not deterred at all. There is a serious lack of security and visible policing in the area. Police and CPF patrols are urgently needed as the private security companies operating here are not helpful. The security guards provided by these companies at the gates do not offer real protection, thus we as residents are left vulnerable. What we need is real security, not fake protection that gives criminals the confidence to steal openly. The laptops were very expensive, worth more than R10,000 each and replacing them will not be easy. Now my sister has to work hard all over again just to replace what was so wrongly taken from her. This crime situation is really worrisome and unfair, especially for residents who try to live honestly and want to feel safe in their own homes. We only finished half of the first month of the new year and already we have faced this crime. I just hope and pray that the rest of the year goes better for us and all residents. It is not fair that we, as law abiding citizens, have to face this kind of danger each day.”
Dinesh Parbhoo of Gem Street, told the Laudium Sun, “We do not see the police patrolling our area at all. Thus as residents, we call for regular police patrols, which are very much needed to combat the crime happening in the area. Lack of visible policing has allowed criminals to operate freely, even in places that are gated and meant to be secured. The incident involving the theft of two laptops from a car parked inside the security gated area is extremely concerning, as residents believe that they and their properties are protected from such crime. Crimes like these show that criminals are no longer afraid and continue to take chances, knowing there is little or no police presence in the area. Even though the area is gated, crime is still escalating at an alarming rate. Gated access alone is not enough to stop criminals and without proper police or CPF patrols, residents remain vulnerable. The current security measures are clearly failing to prevent theft and other criminal activities.”
Keshar Khan, also of Gem Street, told the Laudium Sun, “Crime is really bad in the area and it is impossible to stop the criminals who commit crime here. Every time a crime takes place, there is no proper follow-up by the police. These criminals know that they can get away with crime and that they can operate freely without any fear, while we residents live in fear and continue to feel unsafe, as a result.”