The News recently asked readers if they have been a victim of gate motor theft and the response was more than underwhelming to say the least.
Following reports of gate motor theft becoming a rather large issue in the community, News journalist Natasha Pretorius wanted to know how big a problem it is and how many of these cases are being reported to the police.
After asking for community feedback only one person responded.
The next step was to find out from the Krugersdorp Police how many of these cases have been reported to them. Sergeant Patricia Tshifularo responded by saying that unfortunately they could not provide the News with these numbers while Sergeant Mulalo Ndou from the Muldersdrift Police did not respond.
The News also posed this question to provincial police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela who did not respond.
The last step in the quest to find out if this is an issue was to talk to the Community Policing Forum’s.
John Magodielo the public relations officer for sector 2 in Munsieville said they had no issues with gate motors being stolen in their area. He attributed this to the fact that many people in their community do not make use of automatic gate motors.
Kerryn McNamara from sector 3 also echoed the sentiment that they do not have a problem in their area.
Nadine Els from sector 5, Krugersdorp West, said they did have an issue in 2020 but it has been quiet for the last two months. They had four reports of these types of theft in the first few months of the year and noted that it was white men who mostly stole the motors to sell it for scrap.
Unfortunately no feedback was received from the other sectors.
The News spoke to Johan Krogh, the general manager of EPR security to find out how you can keep your gate motor safe:
• Ensure your gate motor has a solid plate in front of the gate motor when it is in the closed position. This ensures crowbars can not be pushed through the palisades easily.
• Ensure your gate motor is anchored properly.
• Your gate should be designed so that it can not be lifted off the rail when it is in the closed position.
• ‘Anti theft brackets’ also help to delay theft.
• Install and connect a gate alarm to your current home alarm to inform your security company immediately when tampering takes place.
