The Middelburg Observer is aware of at least six incidents where high-end cellphones, as well as cash, clothes and shoes, have been snatched from uniquely coded lockers during early morning hours.

Ms Zania Janse van Rensburg is livid after her son’s phone was stolen from his locker during a recent workout session alongside friends.

The boys visited the gym between 08:00 and 09:00 on the morning of the theft, unlike the other complainants who say their lockers were targeted between 06:00 and 07:00. Planet Fitness Manager Julie van Rooyen confirmed that most of the thefts occurred during the earlier time slot.

According to Janse van Rensburg, her son saved for a full year to be able to buy himself a phone.

Her son and a mate decided to use the sauna after their workout, with the victim locking his phone inside a backpack in one of the lockers.

On his return, the phone, worth over R4 000, was gone.

When he reported the theft, he was told the CCTV camera system was being upgraded and that certain areas of the gym had no surveillance.

A local businessman and his son, who were also targeted by the early morning gym prowler, echoed what Janse van Rensburg said, adding that their damages were in excess of R40 000.

The same businessman said his barber at the Midwater Centre had his shoes stolen.

The businessman also provided details of two other businessmen in town, who also had to part with their phones after locking them in the men’s bathroom lockers, where obvious privacy laws prohibit the installation of cameras.

The businessman said when they reported the thefts to the police, they were met with a sigh and comment of ‘not another one’.

The police have confirmed that multiple theft cases have been opened over the past couple of weeks.

“If I can only catch the kleptomaniac!” Van Rooyen told the paper this week, explaining the ongoing surge in thefts with ‘unfortunately, I have to catch the culprit red-handed’.

According to Van Rooyen, who only recently moved to Middelburg from Gauteng to take the reigns at Planet Fitness, a number of thefts had been reported, with management responding with broadcasts in the gym during peak hours, urging members to rather use the lockers under surveillance outside the bathrooms.

There’s also ample signage to warn members to rather ‘lose the love handles than your valuables’.

Despite the warnings, Van Rooyen says some members still insist on using the bathroom lockers, which has spurred her to take up position outside the men’s bathrooms between 06:00 and 07:00 daily to personally warn patrons of the risks.

Van Rooyen also placed an employee in civvies inside the bathrooms during peak hours, which resulted in no thefts but accusations against the employee.

She told the paper that clients suspected a certain employee but that after the specific employee’s departure, thefts continued.

Employees are rotated, and work shifts, which leads Van Rooyen to believe that it might be another gymgoer responsible for the thefts.

The criminal investigations have been handed to detectives for further investigation.

Van Rooyen says the gym is trying to solve the ongoing increase in thefts but added that it happens in gyms countrywide.

“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” the businessman said, explaining, “You can walk away from your valuables but not from your contract.”

“You leave your valuables at your own risk, as stated in the contract and signage inside the gym,” Van Rooyen countered.

The thief is still at large, Van Rooyen warns, “But we’ve upped the pressure, and it seems he’s lying low, for now.”

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