More and more residents are falling victim to crime, in the Laudium area, with seemingly little or no hope for the residents to be able to sleep in peace or walk the streets without stressing about being mugged or to not worry about being attacked in their own homes.
This follows calls for a ‘Residents Association’ to be formed or to be effected, in order to get the community to work together to combat crime in the area and also grime, as clearly depending on authorities to take care of the area in the best interest of residents, is seemingly just an illusion. In one of the latest incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun, for stats purposes, so that the community is kept informed of the gravity of the crime situation and hopefully would be more vigilant, a resident from 4th Ave, in Laudium, explained to the Laudium Sun, as to how stunned he was upon discovering that the outbuilding behind his home had been broken into, last Friday, without anyone hearing a thing.
Pakistani national, Mohammed Kanran Khan said, “I got up early on Friday morning at around 5am to prepare to go to work at my uncle’s shop in Marabastad. When I was changed up, I prepared to go towards my car, as I always do, just to start it, so that the engine gets hot, and then go back into the house to have my tea, before leaving for work. However, before I could get to my car on Friday, I was shocked to find my garage door open and my front gate standing wide open. I started wondering what was going on, so I walked towards our big gate. When I got there I saw the lock of the gate broken and laying on the floor. I realized that something serious had happened. Thinking that thieves had come onto our property, I immediately went to my car to see if anything was stolen. I started the car to check if the battery was still there. Lucky it was and nothing was stolen. I then walked around the house and went to the outbuilding. I was shocked to find the gate and door wide open and realized it had been broken into. The bedroom where my cousin lives was all in a mess, with some clothes thrown on the floor. I noticed that most of my cousin’s clothing, his TV and other electronic items were gone. It seems that the thieves came into the yard at around 4am, when my cousin was not there, yet none of us heard anything strange. I immediately called my my cousin and the Laudium Police. It is very heart-breaking to see that these greedy thieves are stealing our hard-earned money and goods. It seems that they are only targeting the Pakistani nationals. We work really hard and get up very early everyday, trying to provide for our families and just see what the criminals are doing to us. They are taking the last things we have. The police must do something about this crime in the area and we as residents should also stand together to fight this crime, which is bad for all. Today it is us, tomorrow it is you. These criminals have no mercy”.
Sergeant Chokoe of the Laudium SAPS confirmed to the Laudium Sun that a case of house break-in was opened and that police were investigating the matter. No suspects were thus far arrested, he said.
