OH WATCH

I was reading the Constantia Hills Neighbourhood Watch website and thought that it would be important for residents of Oranjezicht and Higgovale to note that in the space of a week, three armed robberies have occurred in the Constantia Valley on week days between 8pm and 9.30pm in the evening.

In two incidents, armed men slipped onto the property as residents were returning home, and in one incident, residents were already at home when the armed men entered the premises. One of the incidents happened in Soetvlei Avenue, Constantia Hills.

All of this was reported by Helen Bamford a journalist with the Cape Times on 23 January 2011:

They’re well-spoken, nicely dressed and very polite - but if you meet them it’s down the barrel of a gun.

This gang of robbers, with an eye for the good things in life, has been targeting some of Cape Town’s wealthiest suburbs. Usually wearing gloves and balaclavas, they tie residents up or lock them in the bathroom before ransacking their homes and making off in their cars. One gang member even commiserated with a victim about her divorce, when she told him her former husband had taken most of the valuables when they split up.

The latest attack happened in Alphen Drive, Constantia, on Wednesday. In an attack on January 6, a Rondebosch mother said at times during the hour-long robbery she had thought she and her family would be strangled or shot. “But they were so nice even though they were robbing us. Not once were they abrupt or rude.”

The terrifying ordeal took place shortly after 10pm, when three men walked into her kitchen with their guns cocked. She thinks they must have entered her property by jumping over her neighbour’s wall. The robbers made her and her brother and his wife, who were visiting, sit with their hands on the table and their heads down. One held a gun to her brother’s head throughout.

The woman’s two young sons were with their father, but her 15-year-old daughter was in a room with a friend. “My only thoughts were for them. One of the men went to the room and told my daughter if she co-operated no one would be hurt.
“They initially thought it was a joke until they saw the gun.” The robbers took the woman to her bedroom, where they went through her cupboards and drawers, looking for money and jewellery. “When I said I didn’t have much after the divorce, one of them said in a calm voice, ‘I’m sorry you got divorced.’”

The robbers locked everyone in the bathroom and made off with electronic goods, jewellery and some cash. But before they left, they asked if anyone needed some water to drink. After being locked in the bathroom for about half an hour, the family broke the door and fled to neighbours to call for help.

“I got a call the next day from a man who found my Golf about 2km away.” She said her neighbour had experienced a similar robbery the week before. On Wednesday night, according to a neighbourhood watch site, a Constantia family were tied up in their home in Alphen Drive by glove and balaclava-wearing robbers who spoke “impeccable” English and were described as being calm and professional. The men loaded TVs, laptops, jewellery and cash into the residents’ black Mercedes SL320, which was fitted with a tracker and was later found abandoned nearby.

The previous week, three armed men followed a woman and her family into their garage at their Constantia Hills home at 9.30pm. The men were described on the neighbourhood watch site as looking “like well-dressed office executives”.
“They were fluent in English, focused, swift, and conducted themselves professionally.”

The son was forced to point out the family’s valuables in the main bedroom and the robbers loaded these into the residents’ vehicle, which was found abandoned in a nearby street the following morning.

Captain Johan Brink, of the Kirstenhof police, said the robberies were not isolated to the southern suburbs and there had been reports of a similar modus operandi in the northern suburbs. Brink said it was possible that a large gang had split up to work in different areas. A gang of three men was targeting the Constantia area and making off in expensive vehicles. “We haven’t ruled out the possibility it’s the same guys.”

He said the three were reportedly “very nice and polite” and targeted big houses in expensive areas, where they were assured of finding laptops, jewellery and probably a German car in the garage. Gang members usually left in the victims’ vehicles and then abandoned them a day or two later. He said what made it difficult to catch the robbers was that they forced people to lie down and not look at them, so it was not easy to later identify them.
“They also don’t fire shots, so we have nothing on ballistics, and they usually wear gloves, so there are no fingerprints.”

Brink said people seldom kept serial numbers of their goods or photographs of jewellery, which made these items difficult to trace. - Sunday Argus

Please stay vigilant!