With Erasmia and Laudium seeing more and more streets being gated due to the high crime in the area, crime still continues, although there seems to be a decrease in crime in the gated areas.
However, outside the gated areas, there has been an increase in crime, more so in the area south of Erasmia, which is mainly an agricultural area. Many residents claim that crime is high in these areas due to the influx of many people, mainly illegal foreigners, coming into the mushrooming informal settlements south, west and east of Erasmia. One of the areas being targeted by thieves is the Hoekplaas area, where there is ongoing crime, but due to limited police resources in the vast policing area, Erasmia police are finding it hard to combat crime in the area.
In one of the recent incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun, at least two criminals broke into a business, near the M26, some time during the early hours of this past Wednesday morning (Nov 20), stealing a number of valuables and getting away without being spotted by the guards on duty at the premises. The full extent of the break-in was only discovered in the morning, when staff got to the premises and were surprised to find a number of items missing, including a TV and alcohol. The manager at Bayete Estate and Spa, Richard Chamagayi (35) told the Laudium Sun, “According to our CCTV footage these criminals broke into the premises early Wednesday morning at about 3:23am, by breaking open the door from the bar side, which door is used by our customers to come inside to have a drink, relax and watch TV. The thieves stole a 50 inch Samsung plasma television, which is valued at about R8000 and they stole my cell phone P30 Huawei, which is worth about R8000, which I used to play music from at the bar. The thieves also stole alcohol and expensive whiskey from the bar. It seems that they were relaxed and not in a hurry because they also drank alcohol before leaving, as we found some empty beer and whiskey bottles on the table.” Richard added, “It was only at about 4:20am that the security guard on duty alerted us that there had been a break-in. He pressed the panic button, but when we went to check what was happening these criminals were already gone with the stolen items. We have security guards patrolling the area twenty four hours a day, but these criminals managed to break-in and steal from us. We were flabbergasted as to how these brazen criminals managed to drink alcohol and steal from us without being noticed.
Seemingly, the security guards who were patrolling discovered the break-in late, after the thieves were gone. We also have CCTV cameras in our business premises, but that didn’t scare these thieves from breaking the doors of our Estate and Spa to gain entry. When we checked our CCTV cameras they revealed that there were two criminals who broke the door at the bar side and stole from us, but none of us recognized these criminals from being at the bar before. I am not sure but I suspect that these guys were working with one of the security guards, because there are guards patrolling the area the whole night. How come the thieves didn’t get noticed when they broke-in? The whole situation is giving us a headache and it is astonishing. This is not the first time criminals have targeted our business premises. In the past they broke into the room of a guest and stole several items. No one was arrested as a result of the crime. We have now opened a case of business burglary at the Erasmia Police Station.” Attempts to get hold of Erasmia CPF Chairperson Pritesh Bhana for comment, were unsuccessful.
