Newsletter/Blog


2015-04-01
CBAR- March / April 2015 Newsflash


                                                                                                                                                                                                              1st April 2015

Dear Valued Clients,

This month of March has had the highest number of incidents and house break-ins in the past 12 months.16 clients’ premises where broken into and burgled, which is exceptionally high.  This excludes other incidents such as theft out of motor vehicles.

Considering there are a finite number of properties in the City Bowl area, by adding other security service providers and SAPS statistics, it is evident that the criminal activity has increased.  At least CBAR Armed Reaction staff arrested 3 housebreakers, in 3 separate incidents this month!!  Please visit our website on www.cbar.co.za and click on weekly crime stats for a detailed description of these incidents.

Recently I was contacted by a reporter from the Weekend Argus, who wanted to know what impact load shedding has in relation to crime.  After having consulted with other security service providers, it is evident that there was an increase in criminal events during these times.  A savvy criminal would be able to use Eskom load shedding time tables to plan when the best time would be to do a housebreaking / theft.  All the street lights are out, creating a perfect environment to move around undetected.  Load shedding also creates a difficult situation in a monitoring centre.  If for example, an area like Tamboerskloof is out, all the alarm systems start generating AC (power) failure signals, which flood our monitoring centre.  Power failures also seem to cause alarms to send through “unknown” signals.  The result of this is that the Armed Reaction Officers will have to go to more call outs than during a non-load shedding period.  This will reduce response times, due to the number of premises that require checking from whence “unknown signals” were received.  Not to mention that when the load shedding is over, all the alarm systems should send through an AC (restore) signal, indicating that the power to the alarm has been restored.

So the point is, there is definitely an increase in crime during these periods, be it organized or opportunistic.  The monitoring centre is flooded with signals and I am sure that some of the criminals use this to their advantage.

Another hot topic is “crowbar gangs”.  This is not a specific gang that is involved in this type of activity, but is rather the Modus Operandi used by criminals to gain access into properties.  A crowbar is a universal key!  With more homes and business premises using CCTV, there is quite a bit of footage of these “crowbar gangs” in operation.

These criminals are usually well dressed and use upmarket vehicles, often rented from unsuspecting rental agencies.  This serves as their urban camouflage in upmarket areas.  They will stop at a target residence and ring the bell a few times to see if anyone is home.  When they are satisfied there is no-one home, a crowbar is used to lift the electric gate off its track and then push it aside.  There are usually 4 suspects involved in the intrusions and whilst the criminals make light work of the front door and security gate, the driver will turn the vehicle around facing the driveway for a quick getaway.

These criminals know there is a window period of 2 – 3 minutes before the security service provider may be alerted.  They act fast and once through the front door grab flat screen TV’s, jewelry and other expensive electronics.

Arrests of criminals using this crowbar method have been affected, but there are bigger syndicates that organize “crowbar teams” to carry out these break-ins.

Even with anti-lift brackets on gates, outdoor beams and dogs, this crowbar scourge continues.

Vigilance in your neighbourhood is what will bring down these criminals.  If you see anything as described above, a sliding gate standing open with a luxury car and driver ready to go, please contact our emergency number on 0860 151515 so that we can react and alert SAPS simultaneously.

All at CBAR would like to take this opportunity to wish all its clients a very happy Easter and a Chag Pesach Sameach to all our Jewish clients.

CBAR, 24 hours a day, only minutes away!

 

Kind regards and best wishes

 

Alan Kusevitsky and the CBAR Team

 



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