Whilst many local residents continue to be victims of crime from unknown criminals looking for an easy target to pounce on, crimes committed by those who are known to the victims (‘inside jobs, so to speak’), such as domestic workers, security guards and gardeners continue to be of great concern to residents. To add to this concern, many residents ‘blindly’ trust their workers without obtaining references or proper details of the persons employed.
In the latest incident of crime committed by a ‘trusted’ employee, a Laudium family from Heliodor Street, learnt the hard way not to place full trust in an employee. This follows the family leaving their home this past weekend, in the care of their Malawian employee of 4 years, as the family left to attend their son’s wedding in Durban.
Distraught home owner, Nafiza Mahamed told the Laudium Sun, “My husband and I left our home last Thursday morning (March 10) at around 10am, for the airport, as we were going to Durban for my youngest son’s wedding. Before leaving, I called our helper, Ali (surname unknown by employer) who stays in our outbuilding, to let him know that we would not be at home for the weekend and that he should not go anywhere for too long, as he needed to keep an eye on the house. I was really worried about leaving our house, with all the crime taking place in Laudium, but I felt relieved when Ali told me that I should not worry as he had no plans to go anywhere and would be at our house the whole weekend. We trusted Ali with our lives, as he had been working for us for about 4 years and we never had a problem with him before. He even said to me ‘don’t worry madam, I am here I will take care of everything and make sure your house is safe’. I was so at peace because at least I knew Ali was home and my husband and I didn’t have to stress. When we reached Durban, I called Ali to see if everything was okay and he told me ‘yes everything is okay’. He again told me not to stress as he was at home. On Friday evening I called Ali once more, to check if he had locked the front gates and everything was okay. Again, he confirmed that all was in order and asked me not to worry. On Saturday throughout the day I was very busy, because it was the day of the wedding, so I didn’t get a chance to call Ali all day. On Sunday, as we were getting ready to leave for the airport, en route home, I called Ali just to check if everything was okay, but he did not answer his phone. I found that very strange as he always answers his phone. I started panicking as I got a very odd feeling that something was wrong. I called him at least 5 times thereafter, but there was still no answer. I told my husband that I was really worried, but he told me to relax and that perhaps Ali’s phone battery was down, due the ongoing electricity cuts, either because of load shedding or cable theft in Laudium. However, when we got home, we were shocked to find the locks of the front gate going into the house, laying on the floor and the front door broken. We were actually scared to go in as we thought perhaps the criminals were still inside the house and were holding Ali hostage, as Ali did not have the keys to our house. My husband called the police and when they arrived we walked inside with them. Everything seemed normal in the lounge but when we got to our bedroom, every single cupboard was open and all the contents were thrown on the floor. The room was in a mess and when we checked the other rooms, they were all in a similar mess. My husband then went to the back of the house to check where Ali was, as we feared that perhaps he had been tied up by the thieves. However, much to our surprise, Ali was not not there and all his clothing and other items were also gone. We tried calling him but his phone was switched off. As we do not keep much cash at home with all the crime in Laudium, we believe that the thieves ransacked all the cupboards, desperately searching all the rooms for money. The greedy thieves did however manage to steal the jewellery we had and other valuable items as well. We believe that Ali, accompanied by his friends, was behind this theft. Unfortunately, we did not keep a copy of Ali’s passport, nor do we have a recent photo of him.
Sgt Simon Chokoe of the Laudium Police confirmed that a case was opened and is under investigation.
*The Laudium Sun once again urges all employers to make a few copies of your employees’ passport or ID and keep a recent photo, a copy of which should be kept by a family member or friend.
