Is Mushroom Farm Park safe?

Resident Marcelle Franck claimed, “A woman was held up at gunpoint in the park. The guards knew about these men and had seen them before. They had also seen them at the park a few days before the incident took place.”

Franck added the security guards on duty apparently did not call the police or armed response because they were allegedly “too scared”.

However, according to Mark Eilers, operations manager at Mushroom Farm Park, the security guards who were on duty on the day of the incident had a different story to tell.

Eilers said two men were walking alongside the palisade fencing on the outside of the park on Linden Road when they made sexually inappropriate remarks at the woman in question and her child. One of the men then demanded their cellphones and pulled out a firearm. The woman panicked and ran with her child towards the top of the park to the security guards, who asked them what had happened. He added the security guards pressed the panic button to alert armed response.

Eilers said the security guards also contacted the Sandton police. However, spokesperson for the Sandton police, Captain Kym Cloete, said there was no reference of such a case being reported at the station.

Franck said the woman, who did not want to be named, has since said, “Mushroom Farm Park have done a good job at improving the security and have replaced the guards. I am satisfied the correct response has taken place.”