Thursday afternoon 2 January between 3.21pm and 6.45pm there was a clear lack of security in the parking areas of Cradlestone Mall.
When I returned to my car on the blue basement parking level, entrance 1 near Woolies, I discovered that my spare wheel had been stolen from my locked car.
The car door lock had signs of damage and the hooter had been silenced to silence the alarm.
How do these thieves have so much ‘freedom’ from the eyes of security to carry out their deeds?
They had time to remove the spare wheel from inside my car and disconnect the wires to the hooter.
I’m told there is one security guy patrolling two basement floors.
On raising questions with security at the time I was told that the spare wheel of a Fortuner also was stolen on the orange basement level that day.
Friends from our church group also have had their bakkie’s spare wheel stolen at the mall. Where are the thieves loading up all these spare wheels that they are stealing? Most likely in another vehicle? I heard that 21 cars were stolen from the mall when it opened in November.
Can someone share some information on how the mall continues to ignore security for the shoppers’ belongings?
While shopping there before Christmas I had asked a few stores if they were busy and the reply from all was “very quiet during the week and not very busy on the weekend”.
I am not surprised if the security is so poor. I did report the matter to the mall centre management. I have not heard from anyone there.
Centre Manager for Cradlestone Mall, Cara Globler, responds:
The safety of our shoppers and their possessions is of utmost importance to us and we take this issue most seriously. Cradlestone Mall has received a hearty welcome and enjoyed tremendous shopper support over the Festive Season with large numbers of shoppers visiting the mall. We are pleased to report that this was mostly incident free.
Unfortunately, like many places across South Africa, we have experienced a few incidents of crime since opening.
We have investigated each incident thoroughly so that we can make any necessary changes to our security.
We also stay in close contact with local law enforcement to ensure that we can be proactive and play an essential role in preventing crime, not only at our centre but also in our community.
