Crime and more crime has unfortunately become the norm in the Laudium area, with many residents fed up and those who can afford it, choosing to rather move to nearby security estates, in spite of property prices being double in those areas.
The local police clearly do not have any plan of action to stop the ongoing crime, or seemingly do not even care about the concerns and fears of the community, which has to endure crime on a daily basis. This follows yet another house break-in, despite the premises being secured by security fencing. The house on Taj Street, which is vacant, after the passing on of owner, Mariam Ismail (teacher) on July 5, last year, is believed to have been broken into this past Tuesday (Mar 22).
Neighbour Juby Dockrat told the Laudium Sun, “It was around 11:00am this morning, (Tuesday) when one of the next door neighbors noticed that the devils fork security fencing at the home of the late aunty Mariam Ismail, had been tampered with, with one of the bars being removed. We checked the fencing and then when we peeped through it, into the yard to check if anything looked strange, we noticed that the burglar bar of the front window was bent and the window was open. My neighbor needed to rush to work, so I then called the security company and when they arrived they said it looked like a break-in and they called the police. We then alerted aunty Mariam’s son who is staying somewhere else, to come over, as no one could get access into the fenced up property, to check what had really happened. The police, together with aunty Mariam’s son then went into the house, and they found it had been ransacked. The thieves had stolen many items including aunty Mariam’s TV and other valuable items, which were all missing. It seems that the thieves knew that aunty Mariam’s son was not living there and only used to come once in a while to check up on the house. It also seems like the thieves spent a lot of time in the house and had a lot of time to go through all the rooms without being disturbed. I cannot understand how no one in the neighborhood noticed anything. Perhaps the thieves came during the night or in the early part of the morning. Laudium is very dangerous because of the exorbitant crime and something has to be done urgently to stop this state of affairs.”
Another neighbor, Nabeela Carrim told the Laudium Sun, “After aunty Mariam passed on, her son often came to check on the property, but the biggest mistake was to leave the house unattended to. Yes, we as aunty Mariam’s neighbors, always checked on her while she was alive, as she was not well for a while, but after she passed on, her house was locked up, so as time went by, we did not keep an eye on it as before. We were not even aware that there were still valuables kept in the house, as aunty Mariam passed away more than 8 months ago. I am sure that the thieves watched the house for a while and planned the break-in after realizing that no one was staying there. Laudium is becoming a place which is very unsafe. It is not as before where we were free to leave our doors open and sit outside. Now we are afraid of being in our own homes, as at any time thugs can just walk in and rob us of our belongings. I plead to the Laudium Police to please start doing their jobs and patrol our streets effectively in order to protect the community. Also, it is important that the community should be notified of all the crime happenings in our area.”
Sergeant Simon Chokoe of the Laudium Police told the Laudium Sun that he was not aware of the incident as no case was opened. But, he said that he would arrange for extra patrols in the area.
