RECURRING smash and grabs, theft and a string of other opportunistic crimes by ‘whoonga kids’ and beggars have left a a Glenwood businesswoman with no choice but to pack up and leave her home and business.
Andrea Lipschitz told Berea Mail she was heartbroken because she loves the area she had called home for more than a dozen years.
“I love this place, but my son said, Ma you are not safe anymore’. This was after a young boy, believed to be high on whoonga tried to force my gate open early one morning a week ago. He was so arrogant, knowing I couldn’t do anything, he waved while continuing to force the gate open. It just shows their nature, they are not scared of being caught because they just get rapped over the knuckles and come out and do it again. I really have lost confidence in the police,” she said.
Lipschitz said she has had her gate motor battery stolen a few times and the motor was broken on various occasions.
“They check to see if they can open the gate. We have had locks put in place to stop all their antics, but somehow they still manage to force the gate and jam the motor.”
She said she had taken every safety measure since the area got a bit dangerous a few years ago.
“We have an electric fence, good burglar bars, alarm systems and all security in place yet still have incidents. In the past month, we have had three cars have their windows smashed in the morning. One of them was between 8 and 8.30 in the morning. We have put this down to the whoonga kids and beggars at every traffic light in and around Glenwood.
“The whoonga boys are so desperate for money they break in and sometimes there is nothing in the car. Once they took a GPS, on other occasions there was nothing to take but that did not stop them!” she said.
Unfortunately for Lipschitz, the spate of crime has her clients running scared.
“I had a booking for R15 000, which has just been cancelled and they are asking for a refund because their transporter had its window smashed in the street between eight and eight thirty in the morning. They had moved it out of our driveway to make way for another car to leave when it happened,” said a disappointed Lipschitz..
A neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said she along with other residents on the road, had installed electric fences and beams but were still feeling unsafe because of the increase in crime.
“We had a friend hijacked outside our home some months ago and know of many neighbours that have since moved out,” she said.
Lipschitz said although police managed to clear Meyerick Bennet Park, recently there was much to be done about all the beggars, looters and robbers hanging around the neighbourhood.
“The hawkers also create a litter problem and now the toilets are locked at Davenport Centre so they pooh and pee along the side roads, it is disgusting. The vagrants were at Albert Park but now they are slowly coming up to the suburbs. How long will it take to permanently damage this area, so that we all move out?” she asked.
