A resident of Sondersorg Street expressed his appreciation on social media about the “fantastic and absolutely excellent service” he received after a burglary at his house on Sunday morning, while he was in Hoedspruit.

“They were on it immediately,” he wrote. This came after other houses in that street had been burgled on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday night.

His appreciation, however, was also focused on an incident where a non-client of J&M (or of any other security company) had been assisted by them on Friday.

“A woman sent a voice note on a WhatsApp group that their house was broken into and her husband was assaulted. Within three minutes two of J&M’s vehicles were on the scene,” he continued.

Shaun Terblanche of J&M confirmed the incident on Friday afternoon. He said the victim’s wife phoned the control room to say they were wakened by noises of somebody trying to enter the house.
Response officers Morgan Ngobe, Musa Ngwenya and Mandla Skosana all responded to the call and rushed to the premises.

They found the suspects had jumped over the wall to gain access to the premises, and then forced open the bathroom window.

This was what woke the resident, who then went to investigate. He noticed the garage door was forced open and went outside to investigate, when three suspects overpowered him and stabbed him in the head, face and stomach, before they fled the scene.

The officers searched for the suspects in the surrounding areas but could not find them. SAPS and ER24 were dispatched by the J&M control room and the resident was attended to.
Terblanche said although the area is plagued with crime from time to time, it is not necessarily regarded as a hot spot.

“It is easier accessible than suburbs nearer to the town centre, and with the White River Nature Reserve next to it, it offers more hiding options to criminals,” he conceded.

At the time of going to press, nobody was yet arrested.