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We all moan and complain about crime, well here is the opportunity to do something about it. At the very least we should support the initiative of the HCW by communicating.
I agree Gerald. The Helderberg is presently under siege by the criminals.
Murder, Hijacking and Rape all in the space of two weeks leaves me cold with fear. Thank goodness we have the HCW which I firmly believe without which, things would be 100X worse.
Yes there is the option of listing categories for discussion. Let us know what specific topics you wish to discuss in the forum and we will consider posting the topic/s.
The only way to get crime out of our lives is to show zero tolerance and to involve as many people as possible. Put the word out there and let’s make our message viral!
Thanks for the regular crime updates and all the hard work you guys are putting in. It’s quite disturbing that SAPS is not giving you all the crime statistics though. I know of two hijackings in my area last week which are not reflected!
Can I make a suggestion that a quartely update on incidents go out also and can reflect how many incidents there are over a longer period for example 3 months worth.
Thanks Raymond. We have recently become aware of Hijacking incidents in the Helderview area and are trying to get information from SAPS. The community is the best source of information and any incidents can be reported via the HCW website.
Your idea of sending out a 3 month summary is a good one. Perhaps it would be better if we don’t reflect the individual text entries, but only reflect it on a ‘Incident Map’ otherwise you will have pages and pages of incident reports. We have so many incidents to report that the map will in any event be very full.
Great work from HCW! The crime update emails keep me informed. I would agree with Raymond’s proposal of quarterly statistic summaries.
Two questions: I would like to know where the hijackings took place. Who is committing the crimes in the area e.g. housebreaking etc, what are their profiles for one to look out for?
Evert, we are busy getting the info from SAPS and will let you know. Here is another report from last week.
A Tracker crew, hot on the heels of a gang of five hijackers, were amazed to find that one of the robbers they arrested was on crutches.
The bust happened on Thursday morning when the tracking company moved in on their targets within 10 minutes of the hijacked vehicle’s device having been activated.
Company spokesperson Gareth Crocker said a man was travelling alone in between Somerset West and Strand when he was ambushed.
The driver was thrown out of the vehicle and left on the side of the road.
He managed to get help and call his boss, who then informed Tracker of the hijacking.
According to Crocker, the Nyanga national crime combating unit, supported by a Tracker crew, recovered the stolen vehicle within 10 minutes and arrested the suspects a few kilometres away from the hijacking scene.
“The guys arrived and were completely amazed to find one of the suspects hobbling around on crutches, trying to take stickers off the vehicle,” Crocker said.
The man is believed to have been in another vehicle with the man with whom he was arrested. Three other accomplices were arrested.
Besides the hijacking incident reported above, we have reports of two other hijacking incidents last week and where the modus was the same. Victim getting out the car to close the gate.
One incident reported in Adam Tas Road - La Sandra area, and the other in Primula Street - Heldervue.
Thank you so much for putting together this initiative to inform the community of the vasrious crime incidents. Most of us in the Helderberg are blissfully unaware of the levels of crime in the area and by informing us you are empowering us to be more aware so that crime does not take hold of our beautiful Helderberg Basin.
I recently lost a set of car keys. The most likely scenario is that they came out of my pocket when I was taking out my handkerchief while taking a walk. This prompted the following suggestion: Members should be able to get a kew tab from the HCW with the message : “R50.00 REWARD if returned to HCW” and the HCW tlephone number. Each tab should have an identifying number known only to HCW. Obviously it would NOT be a good idea to give the name, address or telephone number of the owner.
Response from HCW Admin:
Thank you for your suggestion Lloyd.
Your suggestion was discussed with the Board and there was unanimous support. It was decided that Helderberg Crime Watch would start putting the necessary in place. It was further proposed that subscribers to this service would pay a small fee (basically to cover the costs of the Key Label and ring). These keys labels will reflect the contact details of the Helderberg Crime Watch and a reference number that relates to the subscriber of the Helderberg Crime Watch.
Once we have the system in place we will inform everyone of the service.
I was most impressed with the latest newsletter (17th April 2008) showing the alarming number of incidents of crime in the Helderberg area. Many people are totally unaware of the increase in crime. I would like to suggest that subscribers print out two copies of the newsletter and give one copy to the nearest neighbour on either side of them who are not subscribers to the HCW! In this way we may hopefully increase our membership so as to provide more patrolling vehicles.
I am in the process of looking for property to buy in Somerset West to improve the safety of my family where we currently have proerty in Norther Suburbs, Western Cape. I am looking specifically at a property in Heldevue but would like to know if you consider Somerset West to be a safer area when you compare statistics or reported crime?
Mmm.. You pose an interesting question Roland however quite understandable given your position.
Regarding your question, we are looking at the respective crime statistics for the Durbanville area (we assume that this is the area in which you presently have property) and will come back to this forum with a comparison once we have run the data.
An interesting exercise in any event.
Ok have run the data. There will be a variance according to crime per capita however if you were hoping to be moving to a “safe” area, sorry we cannot give you better news.
Source: Information Management South African Police Service Crime for the Durbanville Police Station Crime for the Somerset West Police Station
Thank you for all the good work. I have some reservations about the forum, as criminals could also log in and glean information from the comments, do you think there is any risk in this?
Margaret, your concern is a valid one and we are very sensitive to the fact that users of the Forum could innocently post information that could be used by the criminal element.
There are however a number of safeguards in place to prevent this occurring. All posts are moderated, which means that moderators are immediately informed of all posts to the forum. In the event that a posting contains information that could jeopardise the security of either that person, or contains sensitive information, then that post will either be deleted or the relevant portion masked out.
We are however on the long term looking at password access to the forum and are presently updating our online database which will allow only subscribers to Helderberg Crime Watch to enter the forum.
I join the many people who have expressed their good wishes and gratitude to Helderberg Watch. It is good to know you are in the area, and your response has always been excellent. Keep up the good work - I far too often take it for granted.
On Wednesday night I attended the meeting of the new Residents’ Action Group - The services will complement each other and I believe that is another initiative that is worth supporting in whichever way possible.
A few thoughts resulting from the meeting:
1. There was some confusion about the numbering of “wards”, which term was used in multiple contexts and which numbers therefore differ (the ward supported by councillors and that relating to HCW).
2. At a presentation on HCW that meeting I found out about the “meet and greet” service - I will certainly use that in future! Would it be possible to remind us of the services that you offer from time to time in th newsletter? There may be others that I have missed.
3. WHERE WAS EVERYONE?
An earlier post here suggests to print 2 copies of the HCW newsletter and to meet with the neighbours. At the RAG meeting it was suggested that we bring 2 neighbours to the next meeting. I WILL DO THAT! Both suggestions. I am one of those people who is always so busy that I hardly know my neighbours . . .
I just wanted to post a thank you note to the HCW - the information you provide is valuable and an eye opener - and I am a lot more careful and vigilant since reading the updates. We went through a bad patch in our complex where there were incidents almost 2x a week, but the complex community banded together and we now watch out for each other a lot more - and thank goodnes the criminal entrepeneurs have been quiet for the last few weeks. (From your updates, it seems they simply moved on a bit …) Thank you for the hard work, it is much appreciated.
I would also like to thank HCW for all they are doing to help fight crime and for providing such detailed information about what is happening in our area. It is quite staggering to see just how much crime has increased in this area in recent times and we can only fight this scourge if we are informed and if we stand together. It appears from some comments on the forum that your detailed information is slowly waking the community up to the fact that our beautiful town is no longer a safe place to live.
I was also very heartened to see SAPS patrolling the suburban streets early the other morning and of course it always leaves one with a sense of security to see HCW. Local residents also need to be “on patrol” everytime they drive somewhere being the eyes and ears of our community and reporting anything that appears suspicious.
Thank for all you are doing.
Ek het sommer gewonder hoe ander HCW lede voel oor die rapportering van rondlopers in die buurte? Ek woon in Heldervue en het onlangs aangesluit by HCW. Daar was al ‘n geleentheid of twee wat ek gewonder het of ek die patrolliemotor moet bel, maar gewoonlik het ek nie seker gevoel of net vooroordelend is en miskien die patrollie se tyd gaan mors nie. Veral Vrydae waneer die vullis uitgesit word is daar baie rondlopers.
Nou hoe besluit mens wie is ‘n ‘n ‘verdagte persoon’? Kyk ek na mense van ‘n sekere demografie? Dan word ek dalk as ‘n rassis gesien. Daar is mense van alle kleure wat werk (of woon) in die buurt of dit as deurloop moet gebruik. Kyk ek na hoe gehawend die persoon is? Meestal is die persoon waarskynlik net ‘n honger bedelende boemelaar, maar dalk ook iemand wat vir ‘n misdaadgeleentheid soek? So waarvoor kyk ek?
Ek weet ons het baie arm honger mense en bedelaars in die land en ek kry hulle jammer, maar so het misdadigers mens ongelukkig ook baie verdag gemaak van ander mense.
Ek wonder sommer of van die ander lede kan noem waneer en hoe gemaklik hulle voel om die patrolliemotor te skakel vir mense wat duidelik nie hoort in die buurt nie, veral die wat soos boemelaars lyk?
Ons ontvang daagliks rapporte van HCW bydraers ten opsigte van mense wat rondloop. Die afgelope tyd is daar ook opgemerk dat rondloper persone aan die toeneem is in die hele Somersetwes area. Daar is baie redes daarvoor. Die misdaad aspek is van kardinale belang vir ons want ons optrede is geskool om voorkomend te wees. Nie alle boemelaars en rondlopers is misdadigers nie hoewel as n man honger is en jy het nie geld of voedsel nie, gaan jy steel. Van hulle is ook die oe en ore van ander misdaad sindikate.
U kan enige tyd die HCW voertuig van u wyk skakel. Net die feit dat n patrollie offisier in uniform hierdie persoon aanspreek is genoegsaam, sou hy kriminele gedagtes gehad het, weet hy nou hy is geidentifiseer.
Die huidige misdaad tendens is, kyk uit vir die goed geklede man of mans wat wel gesproke en vriendelik is. Hierdie persoon sal normaal weg nie as n misdadiger aangesien word nie. Dit is die gevaarlike element daar buite. Hulle ry ook met mooi blink en nuwe motors in die woonbuurt rond. Skryf die registrasie nommer af en skakel ons.
just something to consider for those that have kids. when we were young there was no way we were allowed to make ear splitting blood curdling screams for obvious reasons.
i am house-sitting in heldervue and on two separate occasions have had my whole body go ice cold and my hair stand on end with the screams of what i was sure was someone being brutally murdered. only to find kids of the neighbours guests going ballistic. it is not the noise but the nature of it.
I was really pleased to hear the email the other week that crime had gone down, and also the visible presence of the police in our streets which has increased most noticably and is a great comfort. However I see that criminals are still getting away with it with today’s email that crime is once again on the increase again. We will not win against crime until there is zero tolerance and of course until there is a change in the mentality of the criminals themselves. I am sure that there is the criminal who only robs because of necessity - but there is the seasoned one (those with the guns) who now make it their living. I am still thankful for the sight of the Police however, please let them catch or at least put of crimes in the first place - and stop all barking dogs while their at it - until 1am in the morning the other night, surely this is not necessary.
Leave a Reply
Whilst this is a public forum, Helderberg Community Policing reserves the right to moderate posts at it's discretion. If you wish to report abusive comments please email abuse@hcw.org.za
March 30th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
We all moan and complain about crime, well here is the opportunity to do something about it. At the very least we should support the initiative of the HCW by communicating.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I agree Gerald. The Helderberg is presently under siege by the criminals.
Murder, Hijacking and Rape all in the space of two weeks leaves me cold with fear. Thank goodness we have the HCW which I firmly believe without which, things would be 100X worse.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:59 am
Will there be any specific areas of discussion posted on this forum?
March 31st, 2008 at 10:06 am
Yes there is the option of listing categories for discussion. Let us know what specific topics you wish to discuss in the forum and we will consider posting the topic/s.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The only way to get crime out of our lives is to show zero tolerance and to involve as many people as possible. Put the word out there and let’s make our message viral!
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m a HCW supporter. I came upon this forum purely by chance when surfing the net. How come we were no informed of it’s existance?
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
Claudia, the Forum is a new initiative. We will be notifying all our supporters via email.
In the interim we would appreciate your continued input.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I would like to be notified more regularly than present that the HCW did patrol in my area.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thanks for the regular crime updates and all the hard work you guys are putting in. It’s quite disturbing that SAPS is not giving you all the crime statistics though. I know of two hijackings in my area last week which are not reflected!
Can I make a suggestion that a quartely update on incidents go out also and can reflect how many incidents there are over a longer period for example 3 months worth.
Keep up the good work.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Thanks Raymond. We have recently become aware of Hijacking incidents in the Helderview area and are trying to get information from SAPS. The community is the best source of information and any incidents can be reported via the HCW website.
Your idea of sending out a 3 month summary is a good one. Perhaps it would be better if we don’t reflect the individual text entries, but only reflect it on a ‘Incident Map’ otherwise you will have pages and pages of incident reports. We have so many incidents to report that the map will in any event be very full.
Thanks
April 8th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Great work from HCW! The crime update emails keep me informed. I would agree with Raymond’s proposal of quarterly statistic summaries.
Two questions: I would like to know where the hijackings took place. Who is committing the crimes in the area e.g. housebreaking etc, what are their profiles for one to look out for?
Keep up the good work! Thanks.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Evert, we are busy getting the info from SAPS and will let you know. Here is another report from last week.
A Tracker crew, hot on the heels of a gang of five hijackers, were amazed to find that one of the robbers they arrested was on crutches.
The bust happened on Thursday morning when the tracking company moved in on their targets within 10 minutes of the hijacked vehicle’s device having been activated.
Company spokesperson Gareth Crocker said a man was travelling alone in between Somerset West and Strand when he was ambushed.
The driver was thrown out of the vehicle and left on the side of the road.
He managed to get help and call his boss, who then informed Tracker of the hijacking.
According to Crocker, the Nyanga national crime combating unit, supported by a Tracker crew, recovered the stolen vehicle within 10 minutes and arrested the suspects a few kilometres away from the hijacking scene.
“The guys arrived and were completely amazed to find one of the suspects hobbling around on crutches, trying to take stickers off the vehicle,” Crocker said.
The man is believed to have been in another vehicle with the man with whom he was arrested. Three other accomplices were arrested.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Besides the hijacking incident reported above, we have reports of two other hijacking incidents last week and where the modus was the same. Victim getting out the car to close the gate.
One incident reported in Adam Tas Road - La Sandra area, and the other in Primula Street - Heldervue.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
One way of getting SAPS to respond!
April 15th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Dear HCW
Thank you so much for putting together this initiative to inform the community of the vasrious crime incidents. Most of us in the Helderberg are blissfully unaware of the levels of crime in the area and by informing us you are empowering us to be more aware so that crime does not take hold of our beautiful Helderberg Basin.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
We need more patrols!
April 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I recently lost a set of car keys. The most likely scenario is that they came out of my pocket when I was taking out my handkerchief while taking a walk. This prompted the following suggestion: Members should be able to get a kew tab from the HCW with the message : “R50.00 REWARD if returned to HCW” and the HCW tlephone number. Each tab should have an identifying number known only to HCW. Obviously it would NOT be a good idea to give the name, address or telephone number of the owner.
Response from HCW Admin:
Thank you for your suggestion Lloyd.
Your suggestion was discussed with the Board and there was unanimous support. It was decided that Helderberg Crime Watch would start putting the necessary in place. It was further proposed that subscribers to this service would pay a small fee (basically to cover the costs of the Key Label and ring). These keys labels will reflect the contact details of the Helderberg Crime Watch and a reference number that relates to the subscriber of the Helderberg Crime Watch.
Once we have the system in place we will inform everyone of the service.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I was most impressed with the latest newsletter (17th April 2008) showing the alarming number of incidents of crime in the Helderberg area. Many people are totally unaware of the increase in crime. I would like to suggest that subscribers print out two copies of the newsletter and give one copy to the nearest neighbour on either side of them who are not subscribers to the HCW! In this way we may hopefully increase our membership so as to provide more patrolling vehicles.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Hi,
I am in the process of looking for property to buy in Somerset West to improve the safety of my family where we currently have proerty in Norther Suburbs, Western Cape. I am looking specifically at a property in Heldevue but would like to know if you consider Somerset West to be a safer area when you compare statistics or reported crime?
Your response will be highly regarded.
thanks,
Roland
May 15th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Mmm.. You pose an interesting question Roland however quite understandable given your position.
Regarding your question, we are looking at the respective crime statistics for the Durbanville area (we assume that this is the area in which you presently have property) and will come back to this forum with a comparison once we have run the data.
An interesting exercise in any event.
Ok have run the data. There will be a variance according to crime per capita however if you were hoping to be moving to a “safe” area, sorry we cannot give you better news.
South African Police Service
Crime for the Durbanville Police Station
Crime for the Somerset West Police Station
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Thank you for all the good work. I have some reservations about the forum, as criminals could also log in and glean information from the comments, do you think there is any risk in this?
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Margaret, your concern is a valid one and we are very sensitive to the fact that users of the Forum could innocently post information that could be used by the criminal element.
There are however a number of safeguards in place to prevent this occurring. All posts are moderated, which means that moderators are immediately informed of all posts to the forum. In the event that a posting contains information that could jeopardise the security of either that person, or contains sensitive information, then that post will either be deleted or the relevant portion masked out.
We are however on the long term looking at password access to the forum and are presently updating our online database which will allow only subscribers to Helderberg Crime Watch to enter the forum.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:06 am
I join the many people who have expressed their good wishes and gratitude to Helderberg Watch. It is good to know you are in the area, and your response has always been excellent. Keep up the good work - I far too often take it for granted.
On Wednesday night I attended the meeting of the new Residents’ Action Group - The services will complement each other and I believe that is another initiative that is worth supporting in whichever way possible.
A few thoughts resulting from the meeting:
1. There was some confusion about the numbering of “wards”, which term was used in multiple contexts and which numbers therefore differ (the ward supported by councillors and that relating to HCW).
2. At a presentation on HCW that meeting I found out about the “meet and greet” service - I will certainly use that in future! Would it be possible to remind us of the services that you offer from time to time in th newsletter? There may be others that I have missed.
3. WHERE WAS EVERYONE?
An earlier post here suggests to print 2 copies of the HCW newsletter and to meet with the neighbours. At the RAG meeting it was suggested that we bring 2 neighbours to the next meeting. I WILL DO THAT! Both suggestions. I am one of those people who is always so busy that I hardly know my neighbours . . .
Thanks again for you hard work!
June 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I just wanted to post a thank you note to the HCW - the information you provide is valuable and an eye opener - and I am a lot more careful and vigilant since reading the updates. We went through a bad patch in our complex where there were incidents almost 2x a week, but the complex community banded together and we now watch out for each other a lot more - and thank goodnes the criminal entrepeneurs have been quiet for the last few weeks. (From your updates, it seems they simply moved on a bit …) Thank you for the hard work, it is much appreciated.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:36 am
I would also like to thank HCW for all they are doing to help fight crime and for providing such detailed information about what is happening in our area. It is quite staggering to see just how much crime has increased in this area in recent times and we can only fight this scourge if we are informed and if we stand together. It appears from some comments on the forum that your detailed information is slowly waking the community up to the fact that our beautiful town is no longer a safe place to live.
I was also very heartened to see SAPS patrolling the suburban streets early the other morning and of course it always leaves one with a sense of security to see HCW. Local residents also need to be “on patrol” everytime they drive somewhere being the eyes and ears of our community and reporting anything that appears suspicious.
Thank for all you are doing.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Raportering van mense wat rondloop
Ek het sommer gewonder hoe ander HCW lede voel oor die rapportering van rondlopers in die buurte? Ek woon in Heldervue en het onlangs aangesluit by HCW. Daar was al ‘n geleentheid of twee wat ek gewonder het of ek die patrolliemotor moet bel, maar gewoonlik het ek nie seker gevoel of net vooroordelend is en miskien die patrollie se tyd gaan mors nie. Veral Vrydae waneer die vullis uitgesit word is daar baie rondlopers.
Nou hoe besluit mens wie is ‘n ‘n ‘verdagte persoon’? Kyk ek na mense van ‘n sekere demografie? Dan word ek dalk as ‘n rassis gesien. Daar is mense van alle kleure wat werk (of woon) in die buurt of dit as deurloop moet gebruik. Kyk ek na hoe gehawend die persoon is? Meestal is die persoon waarskynlik net ‘n honger bedelende boemelaar, maar dalk ook iemand wat vir ‘n misdaadgeleentheid soek? So waarvoor kyk ek?
Ek weet ons het baie arm honger mense en bedelaars in die land en ek kry hulle jammer, maar so het misdadigers mens ongelukkig ook baie verdag gemaak van ander mense.
Ek wonder sommer of van die ander lede kan noem waneer en hoe gemaklik hulle voel om die patrolliemotor te skakel vir mense wat duidelik nie hoort in die buurt nie, veral die wat soos boemelaars lyk?
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Van die HCW Operationele Bestuurder
Baie dankie vir u navraag.
Ons ontvang daagliks rapporte van HCW bydraers ten opsigte van mense wat rondloop. Die afgelope tyd is daar ook opgemerk dat rondloper persone aan die toeneem is in die hele Somersetwes area. Daar is baie redes daarvoor. Die misdaad aspek is van kardinale belang vir ons want ons optrede is geskool om voorkomend te wees. Nie alle boemelaars en rondlopers is misdadigers nie hoewel as n man honger is en jy het nie geld of voedsel nie, gaan jy steel. Van hulle is ook die oe en ore van ander misdaad sindikate.
U kan enige tyd die HCW voertuig van u wyk skakel. Net die feit dat n patrollie offisier in uniform hierdie persoon aanspreek is genoegsaam, sou hy kriminele gedagtes gehad het, weet hy nou hy is geidentifiseer.
Die huidige misdaad tendens is, kyk uit vir die goed geklede man of mans wat wel gesproke en vriendelik is. Hierdie persoon sal normaal weg nie as n misdadiger aangesien word nie. Dit is die gevaarlike element daar buite. Hulle ry ook met mooi blink en nuwe motors in die woonbuurt rond. Skryf die registrasie nommer af en skakel ons.
July 11th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
just something to consider for those that have kids. when we were young there was no way we were allowed to make ear splitting blood curdling screams for obvious reasons.
i am house-sitting in heldervue and on two separate occasions have had my whole body go ice cold and my hair stand on end with the screams of what i was sure was someone being brutally murdered. only to find kids of the neighbours guests going ballistic. it is not the noise but the nature of it.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I was really pleased to hear the email the other week that crime had gone down, and also the visible presence of the police in our streets which has increased most noticably and is a great comfort. However I see that criminals are still getting away with it with today’s email that crime is once again on the increase again. We will not win against crime until there is zero tolerance and of course until there is a change in the mentality of the criminals themselves. I am sure that there is the criminal who only robs because of necessity - but there is the seasoned one (those with the guns) who now make it their living. I am still thankful for the sight of the Police however, please let them catch or at least put of crimes in the first place - and stop all barking dogs while their at it - until 1am in the morning the other night, surely this is not necessary.