Tag: criminals

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New crime trend! Cops say wi-fi detectors used to steal cellphones, laptops from cars

New crime trend! Cops say wi-fi detectors used to steal cellphones, laptops from cars

Pretoria – Police believe they have uncovered the reason behind the high number of theft of cellphones and laptops out of cars in the city and anywhere else across the country.

Spokesperson Captain Collett Weilbach said criminals were using increasingly sophisticated, directional wi-fi detectors to home in on the laptop or cellphone.

This could detect the gadgets from where they had been hidden, be it under the seat of the car or in the boot.

Weilbach urged members of the public, particularly motorists, to turn off the wi-fi of laptops and cellphones to avoid opening an invitation to thieves.

Police in the Brooklyn area, largely populated by students, as well as Sunnyside and the CBD have reported on an increase in the number of laptops stolen out of motor vehicles.

“I parked my car and walked to a restaurant, and all was well. On my return about two hours later, I noticed that one of the rear windows had been smashed.

“I checked under the driver’s seat where my laptop, valued at R15 000, had been, and was alarmed to find it gone.”

She said the laptop couldn’t be seen from any of the windows, and was thus puzzling how the perpetrators could have spotted it.

“I am convinced that they used some kind of a device to detect that I had a laptop in the car. I did not touch the laptop after parking the car, and it had been under the seat the entire time.”

Weilbach said in the majority of the cases, only laptops were stolen out of vehicles.

“The possibility is investigated that there is a new device that allow criminals to locate laptops in parked vehicles.

“Surrounding vehicles are not broken into; the criminals somehow break only into the car (with) laptops.” she said.

She said parking areas at shopping centres, schools, hospitals, sport events and gyms were targeted.

“Sometimes the doors or boots are forced open, and other times windows are broken to gain access.

“In a few incidents there are no signs of forced entry to the vehicle.

“The reports over weekends are the highest,” she said.

The police have cautioned motorists not to leave valuables inside a parked vehicle. Laptop owners in particular were advised to switch these off when travelling to make it invisible to other Bluetooth or wi-fi enabled devices and detectors.

Pretoria News
This report does not necessarily reflects the opinion of Pretoria.ws

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Plot robberies, rape on the rise in the Pretoria North – communities asked to beef up their security

Plot robberies, rape on the rise in the Pretoria North - communities asked to beef up their security

A spate of crimes are being committed on plots in Pretoria North, particularly house robberies and rape. “Criminals are now going to the extent of stealing solar panels from the roofs of houses.”

This is according to police spokesperson Captain Matthews Nkoadi.

He explained the perpetrators were usually in groups of two or three wearing balaclavas and wielding guns.

“We urge communities in that area to up their security and inform us of any suspicious activities,” Nkoadi said.

Other popular crimes he identified included robberies of hair salons, taxis and buses.

“Criminals are now going to the extent of stealing solar panels from the roofs of houses,” he said.

Other forms of crime in Pretoria North seem to be on the decrease.

Nkoadi also said students in other parts of Pretoria were still being targeted by false prophets who were roaming the streets.

“We urge our students to please be more clever than these people,” he said.

He added that most robberies took place in the evening at around 20:00.

Meanwhile Toyota Quantum robbers have been “quiet”.

This follows after Thabo Baloyi was found dead last week. He had been reported missing earlier.

AUTHOR Keitumetse Maako/ Rekord North
This report does not necessarily reflects the opinion of SA-news.

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We’ll deal with criminals ourselves, threaten Faerie Glen residents

Pretoria – Residents of Faerie Glen in Pretoria East have threatened to take matters into their own hands to deal with an increase in crime in the area if police did not intervene.

They said the community was being held hostage by criminals after a surge in housebreakings and muggings over the past few months.

Reports of crime from the suburb and nearby Faerie Glen Nature Reserve have emerged, with the first crime inside the reserve taking place two weeks ago after a 10-year record of safety and security.

A woman was attacked while running on the trail in the reserve and all her gear, including shoes, cellphone, hydration backpack and sunglasses were taken.

Warnings began going up on social media, where trail runners were asked to be cautious and not to run on their own, as criminals, often wielding knives and wearing balaclavas, were on the prowl.

The criminals are said to gain entry into the nature reserve through Atterbury Bridge and using the Manitoba Bridge to gain access to the rest of the nature reserve and into the homes along its periphery.

20/07/2017. Manitoba bridge inside the Faerie Glen Nature Reserve which criminals use to gain accessto houses on the perifery.
Picture: Bongani Shilulbanen

Homes hit are those located on the eastern side and last week residents said they were fed up with what they perceived as a lack of police action.

“We are going to be using maximum force to protect ourselves from these thugs.”

“Extreme situations require extreme measures,” said a resident who lives opposite the nature reserve in Glenwood Street.

He said on two occasions he had spotted burglars in his yard.

“They have stolen my hose pipe and rake,” he said.

Kefentse Mompei who lives adjacent to the reserve, said criminals were now becoming arrogant and doing as they pleased. Her clothes were stolen off her washing line, she said.

She said Faerie Glen Nature Reserve opposite her residential complex provided a hiding place for criminals.

“What is sad is that a resident will end up shooting and killing the perpetrators and they will be jailed for protecting their family,” said Mompei.

Community members said they were fed up and wanted a public meeting with police as soon as possible to discuss the setting-up of foot patrols.

Other residents said despite a police station being close to their homes they no longer felt safe.

Resident Maralise Louw said they wanted to call on all men in the community to come out and assist people going to work to protect them from being attacked.

“And also for men to go to the gates of the schools to make sure children going to school do so safely,” she said.

The chairperson of the Friends of the Faerie Glen Nature Reserve, Louise Kritzinger, said the fences along January Masilela, Glenwood and Manitoba roads needed maintenance.

The opening under the Atterbury Bridge which criminals use to gain access to Faerie Glen Nature Reserve. Picture: Bongani Shilulbanen

 

She said the makeshift fence, made of thin wooden poles, under the Atterbury Bridge needed to be reinforced properly if it was to keep criminals out.

A bushy area situated close to the Atterbury Bridge is where the criminals lived, the Pretoria News was told.

“We are going to suggest that the metro police remove the vagrants,” Kritzinger said.

The reserve was fenced off over a period of about five years from 2002, said Kritzinger.

Residents attributed the increase in crime in the area to development on the northern side of the reserve, adjacent to Lynnwood Road.

They said builders and job seekers had flooded into the area, leading to squatting on the mountain.

According to Kritzinger, after those developments were finished some people continued to live in the bushes, but they were removed from the reserve by mounted police patrols in 2006 and 2007.

Councillor Ernst Botha from Ward 44 said he had been in constant contact with Lieutenant Colonel Kervin Solomon of Garsfontein police, requesting intervention.

A meeting had yet to be set up, he said.

“As you may have become aware, Faerie Glen Nature Reserve has recently become a hot spot for criminal elements; myself and Councillor Pieter van Heerden from Ward 46, adjacent to Ward 44, have collectively been in discussions with various stakeholders to try to curb crime in the area,” said Botha.

They have also taken it up with the top structures within the city, including the departments of Community Safety, Emergency Services and the chairperson of Community Safety.

The city and police had not responded on the soaring crime rate by late on Sunday afternoon.

BY SAKHILE NDLAZI: Pretoria News/IOL