Watch out for petty criminals

Randburg SAPS are calling for shoppers at Randburg Square to seek help from the Randburg Management District (RMD) security guards at the caravan in Pretoria Avenue, if any need arises.

This follows a spree of petty crimes occurring in Randburg Square with many victims having their bags, money and cellphones stolen.

According to the police, shoppers are being persuaded to leave their belongings with strangers.

Randburg Sector 1 manager Constable Vincent Hlungwane explained that victims are deceived by these unknown perpetrators.

“They tell them [customers] that they are the store managers or they have connections inside the stores and they can get them anything from the shops at a cheaper price,” explained Const Hlungwane.

“Some of the tricks these criminals use are just easy and wrong. Imagine a customer being told to leave their belongings behind and told that those items will trigger the sensors in the shop,” he complained.

He said while inside the shop, when the customer is collecting items, the criminals would then tell them to wait as they need to figure out a way of taking those items outside. They then subsequently disappear with the customer’s belongings. “People need to refrain from buying goods at a cheaper price and just stick to the normal price,” he said.

Initially this trend was common at Jet store, but now it has moved to Shoprite, Mr Price, Selfast and Fashion World. Shoppers need to be vigilant and careful about these criminals. He further explained that there were guards in the area and if customers required assistance, they should go to them.

Besides the cheaper price trend, police were also worried about criminals who insist on offering assistance to people when drawing money from the ATMs.

Lawrence Young from the RMD said the problem they are currently experiencing, was an unbearable noise in the eastern side of the Randburg Square. “Some of the night clubs on that side play loud music until 4am,” he explained.

He concluded that only two petty crime incidents at the ATMs were reported in the past eight weeks. “This is a trend that could happen if people are not vigilant of these unscrupulous activities,” said Young.

Details: Randburg Saps 011 449 9000; Randburg Management District 011 340 3333.

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