Date posted: June 27, 2017

Dear Neighbours

Crime Spree

As most will know, the day after our last newsletter (in which we alerted members to concerns of an impending surge in incidents) were hit by a crime spree that has been unprecedented in our 10 years as a neighbourhood watch. This began on 9 May when a house in Hurter Ave was broken into during daytime hours and a number of precious items were removed.

12 May – 3 Incidents

Then on the morning of 12 May at about 4 am, members were responding to reports of an intruder in Dunedin Avenue when another break-in was reported in Rupert Way, where a cell phone was taken before alarms were triggered and then, in the general response to the radio call out, members of another household in the same area discovered that they had been broken into earlier in the night with a large amount of goods removed, earlier in the night, whilst they were asleep.

This last incident took place in an apparently well-secured home via the removal of a window that had not been alarmed. Despite an excellent response by a large number of CPNW members, and an initial close shave, no one was apprehended.

18 May – Multiple Incidents

On 18 May, further attempts in the same area triggered alarms in Willoughby Rd and in Dunedin, as did an attempt in Acacia Ave on May 23. This was followed by numerous reports of apparently highly sophisticated and brazen housebreakings taking placed at a number of locations in the San Michelle and Dassenberg areas.

The pattern that emerged was of multiple break-ins, on a single night, to premises that often had alarm systems, with the removal of doors and windows and the theft of large, high-value items whilst the occupants were sleeping. It would seem that generally the perpetrators were entering areas on foot via greenbelts and avoiding roads as much as possible.

9 June – Multiple Incidents

We were subjected to another spree on the night of 9 and 10 June when large screen TV’s were removed from two houses in Malabar Close and intrusions were also reported from properties in Pine Rd and in Francisca Lane. Fortunately the perpetrators were spotted by an ADT patroller whilst in the process of removing the TV’s which were recovered but despite a great turn-out when the alarm was raised, they again managed to escape.

The following night there were further attempts in San Michelle, with pursuit of the perpetrators into the area of the Dassenberg Koppies. Despite a huge response to the call out to surround the area and the assistance of the K9 unit, they again managed to escape but a number of laptops and stolen items were retrieved.

Kommetjie Arrest

Thus far we have not had news of further similar break-ins in the Noordhoek area but this incident was followed by a further series of attempts of a similar nature in Kommetjie with a successful arrest in the most recent incident. So were are hopeful that we have, at the very least, made it clear to this gang that the Noordhoek areas are not going to be an easy ride for them and with any luck the arrest has been key in stopping this gang’s activities.

Ongoing Opportunistic Crime

There have however, been ongoing incidents of daytime, opportunistic crimes such as the theft of laundry from a line on 25 May in Hurter Ave and a Mountain Bike stolen in Mountain Rd on June 26.

This has, to say the least, been rather a shock for our relatively low-crime area! On the positive side it has woken us all up to the reality of the crime situation in our country, with a big increase in membership to almost 100% of residents and most pleasing is the fact that we now have over 160 radio users, in our area with many ready to respond when a call for help is received.

This is wonderfully reassuring but we would like to remind everyone to please take care: we all tend to get very angry when these things happen and rather brave when joining the hue and cry – whilst we don’t want to deter anyone, please do remember that these are dangerous criminals we may encounter and our role is simply to call for help if we see anything - nothing more!

Activate your Alarm

It has hopefully also given us all a wake-up call in terms of ensuring that properties are well-secured and that perimeter alarms are in place. Sadly in at least 5 of the incidents, alarms were either not activated or non-existent.

Social Media

Less positive has been some inappropriate use of social media (please do have a look at the piece on “conduct” we published in May) and some of the uninformed commentary, particularly regarding the trustworthiness of ADT. As promised, we have received feedback from ADT on investigations into 3 incidents where suspicions were raised about ADT’s alarm installation division possibly being involved.

Whilst we cannot release details due to confidentiality agreements, we are satisfied that the incidents were adequately investigated and that there is little reason to suspect that the perpetrators received assistance from anyone at ADT. In one case the possibility that the break-in was as a result of poor advice on alarm installation by the ADT salesperson has been conceded by ADT, who asked the clients to complete a claim form which has now been handed over to their loss-adjusters.

We have since received information about another member who has left ADT due to frustrations related to alarm connection and we have asked for feedback on this too. We would also like to stress that contracting with ADT for Armed Response Services in no way requires that the alarm installation is done by ADT’s Alarm Installation Service. 

ADT Agreement

To reiterate our position with regard to ADT: We established a collective agreement with them nearly 10 years ago, which enabled us to secure a dedicated patrol vehicle in the area at all times and a second vehicle at night. This agreement is based on there being a sufficient number of ADT clients in the area.

We monitor the activities of their vehicles and we meet with them on a monthly basis to discuss any issues of concern relating to their services in our area. When we established this agreement, we did invite rival companies to match or better what ADT was offering us and none were able to.

To date we have not been able to identify any other company that can be relied upon to offer a better service. As volunteers, the Committee members have our hands full simply trying to keep CPNW running as it is, and we do not have the time to be continually searching for an alternative service provider - but we would welcome anyone who would be willing to take this on!

The challenge would be to find a better provider and to prove this to enough of our members to be able to get everyone on board in shifting to another company, which is no small task.

Constructive Debate

We welcome discussion and debate about how to make our area more secure but we challenge everybody to do more than simply writing derogatory comments and hitting the send button. More than anything else, we believe that it is our strength as a collective that makes our area safer than most in this country.

So, when posting on social media, please consider carefully whether your comments are really going to add to our strength as a community or to undermine it?

Thanks

Lastly thanks to the NRPA for their donation of much-needed furniture to our Community Hall and to all those who continue to work on it! We are looking forward to the next exciting steps in this development.

Wishing you a safe (and quieter!!) July!