Being Equinox and weekend and the beginning of summer and all that jazz, weskusonTheline would have LOVED to only post photos of sun, sea and sapphire at lovely Langebaan and the only weskus on planet Earth . . .
But alas . . . CRIME and slack policing and a growing and alarming sense of UNaccountability and blame shifting from local authorities and the responsible parties are slowly but surely killing the vibe . . . and the town.
Instead of waking up to bird singing and waves breaking, the insistent bleep of neighbourhood watch cellphone groups alarms one to yet another crime scene – this time ANOTHER break-inn at Villa Diamanté and AGAIN approximately 100 m from the old toll house about which weskusonTheline has been reporting extensively for the past few months . . . a crime spot waiting for another opportunity?
This time the crime happened approximately 05:00 (AGAIN!?) in Saffier Street in a house where five people were sleeping peacefully. The intruder used a plank from the nearby building site (about which WOTL has ALSO reported extensively) to climb over a wall, forced open the security door and stole an expensive SAMSUNG S7 watch, a wallet with R3,000 cash, bank cards, etc., four Samsung cellphones, game station, amplifier and whatever have not been found missing yet . . .
Home owner André (who does not want to be identified) has lived in this “security” complex almost seven years and suffered through “four or five” break-inns. None of the cases were ever solved and none of the stolen items were ever found.
“Earlier, here used to be a house break almost every day . . . then the Home Owners Association had a barbed wire fencing put up to protect us from the loiterers in the adjacent municipal open field . . . now they just cut the wire – and VOILA? Nothing has ever been done about it and will ever be . . ”
André gave up long ago and learned to cut his losses . . . and so it seems most of the residents in this supposedly “security complex” at the entrance to LOVELY Langebaan.
WHY? Despondent Police officers apparently have long ago dubbed Villa Diamanté a “high crime” spot too close to Hopland – the crooks just “hop” over there . . . and this outrageous excuse seems to be enough . . . ? What about the pensioners who used their last savings to buy a well-advertised posh retirement home in a secured complex at the entrance to LOVELY Langebaan?
The fact that NOBODY seems to be taking responsibility for the shameful deteriorated state of the old Toll House that has become a haven for drug smugglers (and apparently well-known to the Police) local “tikkoppe” living off petty crime, as well as the open field next to the notorious temporary “taxi rank” opposite OK Minimark, seems to be the underlying factors . . . WHO is responsible for this areas and WHERE ARE THEY? WHY are criminals allowed to use these apparently “ownerless” buildings and unattended and neglected municipal jungles as hiding places from where they terrorize and rob innocent and rate-paying residents?
WeskusonTheline took some photos of the most recent damage to the barbed wire fencing around the old Toll House and the adjacent old house that is currently under construction and turned into an “upmarket complex comprising of 11 flats/units and parking spaces”. UPmarket? With house-breaks and loiterers forcing residents to fear for their safety day and night? With proof of people trespassing and occupying these premises every night and where a Police van turns up now and again, but officers merely talk to the trespassers (noisily, one might add) and just speed off again?
A person “posing” as a security guard has apparently been sleeping and making fire in the old house under construction for the past few weeks . . . and although the police was summoned and supposedly “investigated” it, weskusonTheline went to confiscate his “kitchenette” with tea, tobacco and other oddments today . . . just to dissuade him from using the contractor’s newly ordered plank supply any longer for fire wood and break-inn tools and causing a fire hazard to the entire neighbourhood.
But WHERE is the 24/7 guard that was supposedly appointed to watch the property . . . ? And HOW could the Police NOT realise that (even if he WAS a security guard) nobody is supposed to use contractor’s material for making a FIRE in a room of a house that is being renovated and which he is supposed to guard? And why not confiscate the bucket in which the fire is made every night . . . ?
While businesses are going bankrupt due to poorly planned and protracted road construction work that cut them off from the main traffic and crime is escalating because “tikkoppe” and habitual crooks are regarded as harmless “petty thieves”, one can only wonder what IS happening to lovely Langebaan . . . ?
The following photos say it all . . . who ever is in charge of this area and its buildings and open spaces are NOT doing their jobs . . .
Photos illustrate the stolen plank used to give access to the burglarized house; the proximity of the vacant old house and toll house to Villa Diamanté residents; gardener and handyman Anton Chepiri clearing, beautifying and protecting the area during the day, but who leaves at 16:30 only to find new evidence of nightly trespassers every morning; the inside of the old house under construction where a trespasser has been sleeping and making fire from the contractor’s building supply every night; the old toll house and new gaps in wired fencing made by trespassers who hide in the bushes around the old toll house and in the open municipal field next to the “temporary?” taxi rank . . .
