Smash-and-grab alerts
30 July 2010, 14:05
By Lynnette Johns, Natasha Prince and Murray Williams
Staff Reporters
Brazen thieves are smashing motorists' windows and stealing their cellphones, wallets and handbags on some of the city's busiest roads in full view of CCTV cameras.
The spike in "smash-and-grabs" at several intersections along Valhalla and Vanguard drives - one of Cape Town's busiest arterials - has alarmed police so much that they took to the streets this morning handing out pamphlets warning motorists of the problem.
Police have also started compiling identikits of suspects that will be handed out so that motorists can easily identify them.
Police spokeswoman Captain Marie Louw said that between January and July this year, 39 incidents had been reported. Seventy-eight people had been arrested in connection with 24 of those cases, she said.
Before first light this morning, police and members of the Bonteheuwel Neighbourhood Watch gathered along Vanguard Drive and handed out pamphlets, chatted to motorists and conducted patrols.
The pamphlets warn of several hotspots: Valhalla Drive and Jakkalsvlei Avenue, Valhalla Drive and Modderdam Road, Vanguard Drive and the N2 off-ramp, Vanguard Drive and Bluegum Street, and Vanguard Drive and Washington Drive.
Police say women are normally the victims of these smash and grabs, "because they are not likely to resist or fight".
"When drivers stop at (these) traffic lights, the suspects approach the vehicle from the passenger side and, if they see a handbag or cellphone, they smash the window and grab the items," the pamphlets read.
This morning Captain Danie Venter, the sector commander for Bishop Lavis, said smash and grabs were on the increase, particularly between 5am and 8am, 2pm and 4pm and 8pm and 10pm.
"Many of the women had large amounts of cash with them at the time of incidents," he said. Recently, a woman who had won R6 000 at the GrandWest Casino was robbed of her winnings when she stopped at the intersection of Jakkalsvlei and Vanguard, Venter said.
He said women were being targeted at the robots down Vanguard Drive from Mitchells Plain and up to the GrandWest Casino area. About 99 percent of the criminals were from Langa, Venter said.
CCTV footage from cameras mounted along the road showed how men would approach the passenger side of a car and smash a window with a brick or a spark plug. Most of the attacks took only seconds.
Venter said that sometimes four people were involved in the smash and grabs. They would run through the traffic and into a nearby informal settlement, throwing bags to each other.
When police approached them, the men would disperse, making it almost impossible for police to retrieve the stolen goods or catch the crooks, according to Venter.
When police did manage to arrest suspects, the cases were often withdrawn in court because their victims could not identify them.
Venter said he was hoping the identikits police were compiling would help in the rapid identification of suspects.
One motorist, Zibya Abrahams, said she had witnessed a smash and grab a year ago during peak hour traffic.
Another motorist, Susan Le Roux, said a number of her friends had been victims of such incidents.
Metro police chief Rob Young said the city had a dedicated rapid response unit which monitored CCTV cameras and then raced to the scene of crimes, backed up by normal visible policing.
"Unfortunately, we find that when we focus on one area, there is displacement to other areas."
Young said criminals on Vanguard Drive had moved on to hit traffic on the N2 highway and Modderdam Road instead.
The mayoral committee member for safety, JP Smith, said this morning: "The perpetrators dash in at full speed, as fast as they can, from out of the blue, run straight for the car with a brick in hand and smash the window."
He said that even two police vehicles had been hit in the past year.
Staff Reporters
Brazen thieves are smashing motorists' windows and stealing their cellphones, wallets and handbags on some of the city's busiest roads in full view of CCTV cameras.
The spike in "smash-and-grabs" at several intersections along Valhalla and Vanguard drives - one of Cape Town's busiest arterials - has alarmed police so much that they took to the streets this morning handing out pamphlets warning motorists of the problem.
Police have also started compiling identikits of suspects that will be handed out so that motorists can easily identify them.
Police spokeswoman Captain Marie Louw said that between January and July this year, 39 incidents had been reported. Seventy-eight people had been arrested in connection with 24 of those cases, she said.
Before first light this morning, police and members of the Bonteheuwel Neighbourhood Watch gathered along Vanguard Drive and handed out pamphlets, chatted to motorists and conducted patrols.
The pamphlets warn of several hotspots: Valhalla Drive and Jakkalsvlei Avenue, Valhalla Drive and Modderdam Road, Vanguard Drive and the N2 off-ramp, Vanguard Drive and Bluegum Street, and Vanguard Drive and Washington Drive.
Police say women are normally the victims of these smash and grabs, "because they are not likely to resist or fight".
"When drivers stop at (these) traffic lights, the suspects approach the vehicle from the passenger side and, if they see a handbag or cellphone, they smash the window and grab the items," the pamphlets read.
This morning Captain Danie Venter, the sector commander for Bishop Lavis, said smash and grabs were on the increase, particularly between 5am and 8am, 2pm and 4pm and 8pm and 10pm.
"Many of the women had large amounts of cash with them at the time of incidents," he said. Recently, a woman who had won R6 000 at the GrandWest Casino was robbed of her winnings when she stopped at the intersection of Jakkalsvlei and Vanguard, Venter said.
He said women were being targeted at the robots down Vanguard Drive from Mitchells Plain and up to the GrandWest Casino area. About 99 percent of the criminals were from Langa, Venter said.
CCTV footage from cameras mounted along the road showed how men would approach the passenger side of a car and smash a window with a brick or a spark plug. Most of the attacks took only seconds.
Venter said that sometimes four people were involved in the smash and grabs. They would run through the traffic and into a nearby informal settlement, throwing bags to each other.
When police approached them, the men would disperse, making it almost impossible for police to retrieve the stolen goods or catch the crooks, according to Venter.
When police did manage to arrest suspects, the cases were often withdrawn in court because their victims could not identify them.
Venter said he was hoping the identikits police were compiling would help in the rapid identification of suspects.
One motorist, Zibya Abrahams, said she had witnessed a smash and grab a year ago during peak hour traffic.
Another motorist, Susan Le Roux, said a number of her friends had been victims of such incidents.
Metro police chief Rob Young said the city had a dedicated rapid response unit which monitored CCTV cameras and then raced to the scene of crimes, backed up by normal visible policing.
"Unfortunately, we find that when we focus on one area, there is displacement to other areas."
Young said criminals on Vanguard Drive had moved on to hit traffic on the N2 highway and Modderdam Road instead.
The mayoral committee member for safety, JP Smith, said this morning: "The perpetrators dash in at full speed, as fast as they can, from out of the blue, run straight for the car with a brick in hand and smash the window."
He said that even two police vehicles had been hit in the past year.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on July 30, 2010
Cape Town
