RESIDENTS not opening cases with the police after a crime has been committed allows criminals to continue terrorising the community instead of being put behind bars.

This was revealed by Community Crime Prevention Organisation (CCPO) Amanzimtoti’s George Snodey after two recent crime incidents in Amanzimtoti where the victims declined to open cases. Snodey said that on August 16, a well-known house burglar, who also steals copper pipes from homes, stole a bicycle from a property on Nelson Road that morning.

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“After a call was placed on the radio, the CCPO, ET Rapid Response and Blue Security Durban responded. The suspect was eventually cornered in the CBD where our CCPO supervisor, Isaac Dindi, managed to catch him with the bicycle,” he said.

After the police arrived, the suspect was taken to the police station, however, the homeowner declined to open a case, which meant the suspect had to be released.

“I’m not sure about the reason because I wasn’t there, but a lot of time and resources are put into searching for a suspect, and not opening a case is very frustrating,” he said.

On the same day, a woman who had gone to the beach for a walk near Chain Rocks was robbed of her jewellery. Snodey said that in the process of being mugged, the woman was almost stabbed.

“The suspect in that robbery was later arrested in Napier Road while he was robbing another old lady of her gold chain. He had her by the neck and threw her on the ground. By pure luck, a security car drove past and the security officer in the car saw what was happening and managed to apprehend the suspect. That old lady wouldn’t open a case because she felt sorry for him because he was hungry. That suspect should be in jail for the next 10 to 15 years because he almost killed someone,” said Snodey.

There have been many cases where the CCPO and the police find stolen property on a person or on their premises, but if there was no case that was opened, they cannot arrest anyone and they cannot remove that suspected stolen property.

Snodey asked the community to report all cases of crime to make it easier to take those guilty of crime off the streets.

DID YOU KNOW?

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