THE body corporate of a Soutpansberg Drive, Van Riebeeck Park complex says it cannot be held responsible for the vehicle theft of one of its tenants.
According to the tenant, her car was stolen in the early hours of November 4, while parked on the premises of the complex.
“At 3am my Golf GTI was stolen, along with the tyres of another tenant’s City Golf. His was left on bricks. This all happened within two hours and the security guard claimed to have seen them open the gate. He pressed the panic button but it seems the security company never came,” the tenant, who asked not to be named, said.
According to the complex’s body corporate, they don’t have a security guard and it was the gardener who pressed the panic button.
“The gardener saw people at the gate at 3.10am and pressed the panic button. He could not see all that was happening from his room. He also has instructions not to open the gate of his room as this is a major security risk,” a member of the body corporate said.
“One of the body corporate members received the first call from the security and instructed them to come out and investigate. The panic button was then activated again by the gardener as there was no response.
“The company then phoned me at 3.20am and I also instructed them to respond. I took the risk of going out to see what the problem was and noticed that the wheels of a City Golf were missing at the visitor’s parking. I woke up the owner to inform him.”
He said at no point did he notice that the first resident’s car was missing.
According to the owner of the GTI, the police were on the scene and a case of car theft was opened.
According to the body corporate, they cannot be blamed for this turn of events, as there is a sign at the gate of the complex which reads that the body corporate will not be held responsible for any losses.
“We, as the corporate, also feel the security security did not respond as they should have and in the interim have obtained new quotes to bring on board another security firm, as well as to have a camera installed at the gate. If there is any finger pointing, then this should be directed to the security company. They eventually responded after I had pressed the panic button a number of times. Once they were on site, they alerted the police.”
