Residents of Laudium are seemingly overstretched by stress, panic and fear with no sight of the situation calming down anytime soon, as crime continues unabated, being the primary concern of residents.
Despite the concerns of residents, local police do not seem to have any plan as to how to pro-actively address the concerns of residents, concerning the high crime in the area, taking place even during curfew time.
What is more disturbing for residents, is that the call by police for the community to work together with police to fight crime in the area, seems to merely be a slogan, as many times when the community do make arrests and hand over the culprits to the police, the same culprits are soon released and seen walking the streets within hours of their arrest. Some residents are therefore now calling for vigilante groups to be formed to fight off the criminals, who have seemingly taken control of the area.
A recent incident has once again disturbed the peaceful night of law abiding residents, this time in the neighbourhood of Agra Street East, who were in panic after news of a criminal in the area was circulated on a neighbourhood group. The incident took place this past Sunday evening (July 18) at around 10:30 pm.
Hussein Mehmood, a resident on the corner of Agra Street and 36th Avenue, told the Laudium Sun, “At around 10:15 at night we heard a strange sound coming from the back of our house, but we did not take much notice, as we have a tenant living at the back. The next thing I saw on the group warning us to be careful as two thieves were in the area and our neighbour then put on the group asking for help as there were two black guys in his yard. I, together with a number of neighbours, went out to assist. We were told that there were two thieves who were dropped off in the area by some person in a white Citi Golf. Many of us came out of our houses to help catch the two thieves. One of the thieves managed to escape and ran away toward the Military Road and the other was caught by the residents in my neighbour’s yard. He told us that he was from Lotus Gardens. He also gave us a story that he was forced to come to Laudium and steal by a gang, or they would kill him. Of course, he seemed to be lying and was hoping that the community would believe his tale and leave him. Then later my tenant said that the thieves had tried to open her door but failed, that was the time that I heard the noise in my backyard. The thieves then jumped into the yard next door. One of the big problems in our area is the non-functional street lights that have not been working for months now. Thus it is very dark. So, these thieves know that when it is dark, they can out-maneuver us and get away with everything they steal around here.”
At the time of going to print, Sergeant Simon Chokoe, of the Laudium SAPS, said, “The suspicious suspect who was found in the yard of a house on Agra Street East, was detained. However, he was since released as no charges were laid against him by the community. I urge the community to always exercise their right to report trespassing incidents in their areas to the police and not to take the law into their own hands. Working together we can stop crime.”
* Last month (June 25) the Laudium Sun reported that two nyaopes who were arrested by residents of Erasmia after being found in a private yard, were handed over to the police, but were soon thereafter released as no one from the community had laid charges against them.
