Police in North West warns community about escalating cases of house and business robberies

Police in the North West are concerned about escalating reported cases of business and house robberies.

It is important that a hands-on approach is applied to curb this kind of crime. It is also imperative that security is beefed up and that the community work with the police to effectively and proactively address the challenge. Business owners and the broader community are advised to take heed by applying the following safety hints:

· Be on alert as crime can occur any time;

· Close their businesses on time;

· Where possible, employ security officials to guard premises;

· Identify possible hiding places outside and around their places;

· Know full details of your gardeners and domestic workers;

· Report suspicious people to the local Police; be alert and vigilant of persons appearing to be roaming around as they could be monitoring your home or businesses and

· Make sure all shrubs and trees are trimmed so that they do not obstruct the view.

It has also been noted that stolen serial numbered properties are not circulated in the SAPS system as complainants, upon opening cases they do not provide serial numbers. Then, this poses a serious challenge to SAPS and creates a market as well as possible circulation of such properties from one person to the other without being identified. In such situations, it also becomes difficult for the police to identify owners when such goods are recovered.

The community is therefore advised to create and keep safe a register where they will record serial numbers of their properties. This will enable them to provide a serial number of a particular item to the police when they register cases, thus allowing the police to circulate it immediately as stolen.

Also view:

Tips for increased Safety Awareness and Preventing House Robberies

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