It is clear, in fact very clear, that no one in Laudium is safe from being personally attacked by criminals for their valuables or that no valuables are safe from being stolen by thieves. Certainly, no item or valuable can be left unattended to in the public domain, not even for a second, as criminals are prowling the streets, like hyenas, seemingly on a 24 hour basis, looking for their next prey to pounce on.
This is the hard lesson that Chris Sekgola, and his wife Gloria of Brown Street, Laudium, learnt last Monday, at around 8pm, when their car was stolen, after being left unattended for “just a minute”. Chris, the owner of the now stolen Black Toyota RunX, told the Laudium Sun, “My wife visited her friend on Monday evening and at around 8pm that night, on her way back home, she passed through Onyx Street, making a quick stop at a tuck shop there. She stopped the RunX outside the shop, leaving it idling and quickly ran in to buy something. Less than three minutes later she was out of the tuck shop, but was shocked to discover that the RunX was gone. No one saw anyone suspicious in the area at the time, nor seen anyone driving the car away. It happened in a flash, as if whoever stole it, was waiting for her. I guess, because the shop is near the Military Road, the thief or thieves made a quick getaway towards the R55. It is very shameful that we had to lose our car in a place like Laudium. We should be protected here, we thought Laudium is a safe place to live in, but clearly this is not the case. These thieves around here do as they please. We opened a case with the Laudium SAPS, hoping that they investigate the matter thoroughly and catch the culprits responsible. The police in Danville, Pretoria West, after a few days recovered the car, but the engine was messed up, which will cost us around R12 000 to fix. The guy who stole it, we were told, could not be arrested as he is believed to be underage, just 15. I was also told that the father of the boy lives in White Blocks and he is known to be involved in buying stolen goods. Why are the cops not investigating the father? I am sure that he is also involved in buying stolen cars. I pray they are caught. The father probably uses underage guys to steal the cars because they know the law is lenient towards them. It is unacceptable that some people can just come and take our hard-earned things for free. We have been shattered and broken. The crime here is very bad now.”
*The incident is just one of thousands of vehicle-related crimes to have occurred in Gauteng in 2021. Since January this year, 2 328 car-jacking crimes were reported, and 4 845 motor vehicle or motorbike theft cases were opened. Additionally, 5 739 incidents of theft out of or from a motor vehicle were reported, bringing the total of personal motorised transport related crimes to 12 912, a staggering average of 140 per day.
