When employees of Marlyn Instrumentation arrived at work last Thursday, they noticed the main gate was open.
According to employee Jeandre Hardacre the door to the office was standing open and when they entered the building they realised there had been a break-in.
According to the owner of Marlyn Instrumentation, Mark Rautenbach, this is the fifth time since last year they have been broken into.
SVG Engineering, which is on the same premises, also fell victim to the robbers.
The owner of SVG Engineering, Stewart Lumgair, said they were surprised when they got to work to find they had been broken into. His wife phoned ProSafe at 7:02am to report the break-in.
“ProSafe arrived on the scene at 7:05am and we then discovered the alarm system had been smashed,” said Lumgair, adding machine tips and a grinder were stolen.
According to ProSafe owner Tony da Cruz the robbers gained access to the Marlyn Instrumentation security system by removing roof tiles to cut the wires to the alarm to disable it.
“The reaction officer’s inspection after receiving a single alarm signal was thorough, but he did not check every square inch of the roof,” said da Cruz.
He added in hindsight he could have seen the tiles lifted from the roof, but he did a thorough inspection around the two building, as was expected of him.
Da Cruz said it is becoming a trend for robbers to gain access through the roofs of buildings in the industrial and commercial areas.
According to Hardacre, the robbers gained entry into the building by breaking through a wall, gaining direct access into the safe room, where they also smashed the control box of the alarm.
“The robbers took beer from the fridge of SVG Engineering and the empty cans were found on the scene, near the hole,” said Hardacre.
She added she suspected the robbers tried to gain access to the rest of the building through the safe room door, but couldn’t.
“The robbers gained access to the rest of the building by breaking the security bar in the toilet cubicle,” said Rautenbach.
According to Rautenbach, everything was a mess when they arrived for work, with all the desk drawers emptied onto the office floor.
“We have noticed they even took the breakfast bars from one of my colleague’s drawers and ate it, as we found a half eaten bar at the main gate,” said Hardacre.
She adds every time they break-in they try to secure the building with more security equipment.
The robbers stole computer boxes, stock, a grinder, a multimedia projector, cash and the companies’ server containing all the footage as well as a hi-fi from the stock room.
Springs police spokesman Captain Johannes Ramphora said the case is under investigation.
