Strong communities best way to prevent house break-ins, says Mike Bolhuis

Private investigator Mike Bolhuis has warned Pretoria residents about a recent increase in crime, especially house break-ins.

“We have seen an increase in all sorts of crime in Pretoria, but especially with house break-ins.”

Bolhuis explained that there is always an increase when people go on holiday.

“When people leave, their houses become targets for criminals,” Bolhuis told Rekord.

“The way they [criminals] operate today is very sophisticated, and they plan it way ahead of time.”

According to Bolhuis, potential criminals will investigate a person’s house and find out everything they can about it.

“They can get a lot of information on you,” he said.

“They know what time you go to work when you come back home, and they know what’s in your house and where it is.”

INFORMATION CRIMINALS LOOK FOR

He said the first information they looked for was what kind of dogs were on the property.

If there are big guard dogs, they will try to poison and kill them to gain access to the property.

Smaller dogs like poodles are stolen and sold online.

“There’s a whole market for them on the internet,” said Bolhuis.

He said criminals find this out from workers who provide them with this information, sometimes under threats or willingly to gangs and criminals.

The private investigator said the best way to combat this crime trend is to form strong bonds within your community.

“Talk to your neighbours. Get to know them and gain their trust.

“If you can trust your neighbour, you can ask them to look after your house while you’re away on vacation.

“It’s also important to build good relationships with the local police and CPF.”

Bolhuis and his team have noticed that people are flaunting their lavish lifestyles on social media, which only further makes them a target.

“If you’re showing people fancy cars and jewellery on Facebook, that information could get into the hands of the wrong person.”

Another tip he provided is for people to be more careful with documents containing personal information.

Information, such as your home address, work address, names of family members, etc., can be used by cybercriminals for extortion.

“We have had many cases of people receiving calls saying they are the police or other authorities and they have damaging information about you.

“They then use this information to extort money from people, and they fall for it very easily.”

Bolhuis said it is wisest to shred any papers with personal information before discarding it.

“There are syndicates that pay young boys R50 to go out to these dumping sites and bring them any papers with writing on them.

“They show them an example of a document, and they come back with heaps of papers; they use anything on there to get money from people.”

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