THE Umbilo based Meals on Wheels, a multi-faceted welfare service aimed at providing needy elderly with nourishing meals has been hard hit by crime over the past month.
According to manager, Sharon Moodley, the premises at the corner of Heather and Umbilo Roads has become a hotspot for crime. “It has become a hotspot for car break-ins. Since the beginning of this month, we’ve had two cars broken into while parked outside our premises. Even though it hasn’t happened to us personally, many service providers who park their vehicles outside are targeted and we see the footage later,” she explained.
Moodley said because most of the break-ins were work vehicles, many people did not report them. “It is frustrating because we can’t report crime on behalf of other people. The police have told us this when we call them, but yet we are all told to report crime.
“We see the footage of how these criminals operate in pairs, where one person breaks a lock and another comes to remove items like tools, a radio etc.”
In the latest incident which occurred on Tuesday morning, a man Moodley later realised after watching the CCTV footage, was a person who benefited from the feeding scheme, stole a 20 litre bucket of soup and a few loaves of bread. “He came back on Wednesday morning and hung his head in shame and apologised when I confronted him,” she said.
