LYDENBURG – This town seems to be a target for criminals and the number of burglaries has escalated in the past few months.

The local Lewis Furniture store has been the most recent target of a smash and grab. Four plasma television sets with an estimated
value of R40 000 were stolen on the night of Thursday February 12.

A month ago they broke into Cherries Fashions Boutique and stole three hubbly bubblies with an estimated value of R2 000. In December they also broke into Standard Bank.

Capt Mabokalake Mashabela, communications officer at the Lydenburg SAPS, confirmed the break-in and said the robbers only stole TV sets.

According to Mashabela, the alarm went off and Sun Security notified the police. Mr André Marx, manager of Sun Security, said the store was not under its supervision but resorted under Crime Combat Security, however, Sun Security was the first team at the scene.

“One of the guards, who was guarding Pick n Pay, pressed the panic button and informed officers that there were robbers at Lewis,” he explained.
“When they arrived at the store they called the local police and Crime Combat Security so that they could take over,” he added.

According to Crime Combat Security, the alarm went off and it immediately rushed to the scene.

Crime Combat Solutions manager, Mr Elmar Freeman, said that Lewis was under the supervision of Chubb Security, although it sub-contracted Chubb as it did not have an office in Lydenburg.

“Our responsibility is to make sure that we respond to the alarm, attend to it immediately and after that we report back to Chubb.

“On the day in question we did respond immediately but it was a smash and grab, which normally only takes seconds for robbers to take what they want and flee,” he explained.

According to the officers that went to the crime scene, a guard from Sun Security said he saw four suspects arriving in a bakkie, they broke the door and quickly went in and out of the store and drove away.

“We would like to advise the community to make sure they install anti-smash, burglar gates and different beams in their stores and homes to avoid such things from happening,” he added.

An investigation is underway and no arrests have been made, Mashabela said.