With crime continuing to be of concern to residents in the Laudium area, criminals still continue to prowl the streets of Laudium freely and seemingly without fear of being arrested by the police.
For some unknown reason, the police do not seem to be interested in implementing proactive measures in the area, either to catch these criminals who are clearly sowing fear in the hearts of many residents or in order to stop the scourge of crime taking place in the area on a daily basis.
In one of the latest reports of crime received by the Laudium Sun, a businessman was left fired up, after discovering that his business had been targeted by thieves, during the course of the night, whilst he was asleep.
This follows a break-in at ‘Bakers Oven,’ situated at the corner of 13th Ave and Marble Street in Laudium. The property, which previously was used for residential purposes and is now being used as a business, was found ransacked, when the owner arrived at his premises last Friday morning, in order to start trading for the new day.
Owner, Feroz Aboobaker, was bitterly surprised when he arrived on Friday morning (Sept 23) at around 9pm to open the bakery doors, and found that the doors were already open. Feroz was clearly in a heated mood, as he could not understand how the doors were open, when he clearly remembered locking all doors the previous night (Thursday) and securing the premises before leaving.
Feroz told the Laudium Sun, “When I arrived at the premises at around 9am on Friday, to open the doors, I was shocked to find that the doors of the bakery were wide open. I immediately realized that something was wrong, and that the place had been targeted by thieves, as I clearly locked up all the doors the previous evening when I left the bakery. I then called my security company and asked them to send a vehicle immediately, as I did not want to enter the premises alone, in case the thieves were still inside. When the security came, we both went in together and found the shop in a total mess. The place had been ransacked and the thieves even disconnected the cameras. Many things were stolen, including cash. The thieves even damaged our computers. It seems that they were inside the shop for a long time, as they went through the entire shop. I could not understand how these thieves came in as all the windows were still intact and none of the doors were forced open. It was only later when I realised that the thieves had come in from the roof, but left from the door, which they opened from inside. The crime situation in Laudium is getting very bad.”
When asked to comment, Sergeant Chokoe of the Laudium SAPS told the Laudium Sun, “Police in Laudium are investigating a case of Business Burglary which happened between 2022-09-22 evening and 2022-09-23 morning at corner of 13th Avenue and Marble Street in Laudium. It is alleged that the victim who is the owner of the business, on 2022-09-22 closed and locked his business with all in order. It is further alleged that on 2022-09-23 morning when the victim arrived at the business premises, he was surprised by his business doors being wide open. Upon checking on what was happening, the victim noticed that the computers were damaged, place ransacked and an undisclosed amount of money was taken. The suspects gained entry through the roof. No one has been arrested yet. The South Afican Police Service in Laudium is pleading to anyone with information, which might lead to the arrest of the suspects, to contact the SAPS on 0860010111 or contact the local police.”
The Laudium Sun also spoke to Sathiaraj Kanagaraj from Saravanas Pooja Store on 13th Ave, who said, “Crime is getting bad in Laudium. Thieves attempted to break into my store once again. I plead with the community or the police to do something about crime because we are now tired of the crime in Laudium. We are even unable to leave our stores unattended in the evenings because they target our stores at any given opportunity.”
