Brazen thugs terrorise neighbourhood
An Oakdene mother recalls the panic in her daughter’s voice when she called to report a housebreaking incident
OAKDENE – When four unknown men parked a white Toyota Hilux at the gate of an Oakdene resident on January 25 and proceeded to derail the gate, it alarmed the two youngsters who were home alone.
Mrs Arum says that when she received a call from her teenage daughter who was with her nine-year-old sister, alerting her that a group of unknown men were attempting to gain entry to their home, she feared the worst.
“I was out when my daughters called me and told me that they were watching through the window, while men they didn’t know were unhinging the gate,” remembers Mrs Arum. “My girls told me that they had locked the doors but they were still scared, because the men had entered the yard.”
The men had casually pulled up to the Arum household as if they were expected guests and waited a while at the gate as if they were waiting for someone to open the gate for them, before they calmly made their way into the yard. What these criminals did not count on was that someone was watching.
The Arum’s moved to Oakdene recently, but they had managed to familiarise themselves with their neighbours and the area SAPS patrol officers, an act which saved their daughters from a terrible fate.
“My girls told us the men had made their way into the yard almost two minutes after the initial call and that was when I told them to go and lock themselves into one of their bedrooms. I then told them to give me the SAPS sector patrol’s cell phone number and I contacted the officers. My next door neighbour rushed all the way from City Deep to attend to my crisis.”
After the girls sounded the alarm, the men got scared and made their getaway, managing to miss Mrs Arum’s neighbour, who is part of the neighbourhood watch.
The Toyota Hilux in question was found by the Oakdene neighbourhood watch in the early hours a few days after the attempted housebreak incident, abandoned with the doors left open. The suspects may have changed their vehicle and may be using a different mode of transport to continue their reign of terror.
Also in January, an armed robbery was captured on a D&D Tactical Security CCTV monitor, showing armed men travelling in a silver BMW, who can be seen entering the road at different times before they performed the robbery.
According to D&D Tactical, four or five suspects in a silver BMW got out of the vehicle as visitors would. They had driven past the targeted house at least five times before returning and lifting the gate, forcing the front entrance door open with crowbars and gaining entry into the house. Valuables were stolen.
The Star newspaper, according to the Glenvista Community Policing Forums Facebook page, reported that a silver BMW has been terrorising the community of the Linden suburb. Apparently, a group of five men in the silver BMW were seen walking in a street in Linden, where three houses were robbed.
No arrests have been made and it has not been determined whether the silver BMW involved in house breakings in Linden is the same one that was caught on camera in Glenvista.
