Cape Town organized crime - burgleries around the city

There is a spate of burglaries going around in the mother city.
Especially University Estate in Upper Woodstock is feeling the heat. Cars towed off at night, maids held hostage and electronics stolen to be sold on the black market.

A resident in Fryde Street reports that his car, which he parked in the road, was broken into, rolled down the street and loaded onto a towing truck. He can report back on the exact happenings because his security cameras taped everything.
Another resident living in Fryde Street was more lucky. Her car has central locking, which the thiefs were not able to crack. However, she herself was not able to open her car and had to get a pricely fix. At least this resident remains with a car.

Residents in University Estate are also smart to get home content insurance at this crime stricken time.
Last Wednesday, on October 12th a group of three African (Xhosa speaking) men in a black panel van, burgled three houses in University Estate. One house located in Baris Road and the other two in Gerrick Street.

The three men used blunt, crude force, de-railing and lifting gates and crow-baring front gates, security gates and front doors. One of the affected properties had multiple dogs on the grounds, an electric fence, security entrance gate, a Magnadoor, as well as a solid wood front door. The burglars managed to distract the dogs, without harming them. They then smashed three doors and managed to get away with a laptop, sound system and multiple other electronic equipment.

Another house hit in the area had a maid working on the premises at the time of the incident.
The owner reports: They didn't expect my maid at the house, because she had not opened the curtains. The lifted and de-railed my gate and got into the house. They surprised the maid and put something over her head. They then told her to lie on the floor and hit her head with something hard.
A neighbor saw the burglars walking around the house with a microwave and called the police.

This resident had only moved into the rental properties two months ago and newly furnished the entire house. The thiefs managed to get away with tens-of thousands of Rand in electronic ware. Luckily this particular resident managed to conclude her household insurance before the incident.

Another house down the road was burgled on the same day.

Residents of the affected Baris Road house report that they have observed multiple black man scoping out their and adjacent grounds on Monday of the same week.

The stricken maid of Gerrick Road reports to have seen the face of one of the man clearly and will be able to identify the group once they get caught - that is of course, IF they ever get caught.



Police presence in the area has notably increased, but police also told the residents that the burglaries had been occurring in the area for quite a while and that the criminals move from area to area and are unlikely to come back.

Never the less, residents are worried and those not affected are counting the hours till the thiefs also hit them.

Reassuringly, the men mostly hit during the day when people are at work and don't seem to intend to harm anybody. 

---