A motorist who had items stolen from his car while it was parked off Florida Road is warning other motorists to be aware of the modus operandi of criminals who target parked vehicles.
According to Johannesburg businessman, Ryan Johnson, who was on business in Durban, he had personal items stolen out of his hire vehicle just off Florida Road and is asking the public for any information regarding the hard drives which were stolen.
“Myself and four colleagues from Cape Town were in Durban on business and had a Toyota Quantum as our hire vehicle. We left the office late on Wednesday 2 July and decided instead of going back to the hotel and putting our items down, we would stop for a quick supper in Florida Road. We went to Spiga D’oro for supper and while we were sitting in the restaurant, a car guard came up and told us our car was unlocked. As my colleague walked out the restaurant the car guard, said ‘oh it’s not you, it’s someone else’ and that he had made a mistake,” said Johnson.
He said after the incident, they realised this was obviously all part of the ploy to see how far we were with our meal, so that the perpetrators could see how much time they had to fiddle with the vehicle.
The men left the restaurant shortly after 9pm and returned to their vehicle. When they climbed in, one of the men felt under the seat, only to discover their laptop bags were all missing.
“We all lost a mixture of items, laptops each, i-pads, i-phones, other tablets, ID books, passports, and external hard drives. I had my external hard drive with my PhD thesis on it as I wanted to work on it while in the hotel, and also had the back-up hard drive with me, as I thought it would be an ideal opportunity while in the hotel to get all my back-ups up to date. Both were stolen meaning I have lost my entire thesis that was near to completion,” said Johnson.
He said the police arrived and inspected the vehicle but found no damage and said they suspected it was car jamming.
The next morning, Johnson said he noticed the lock of the sliding door of the Toyota Quantum had had something pushed into the lock, and it looked as if the door had been forced open.
“When we reported it to the police, it was the second incident that night of a car break-in. On Friday when I flew back from Durban there was another article in the newspaper of a tourist who had his car broken into in Florida Road, so it is definitely a hot spot and the public needs to be warned about it,” he said.
Johnson said he was devastated as was desperate to get back his external hard drives back containing his thesis and other personal information.
If anyone has any information, contact the investigating officer, Const Bunting from the Berea Police Station, or Ryan Johnson on 083 459 1950.
Jarrod Evans, precinct manager of the Florida Road UIP, said an increase in crime in the area had been noted over the Durban July period. “We will be requesting additional policing presence in the future to accommodate the increase in tourism to the road. Apart from the big events however, the UIP is acutely aware of the challenges we are facing with motor vehicle related crimes. For a while now we have been working with various stakeholders to implement a long term formalised car guard structure and we are just about at the point of final city approval. This system will go a long way to ensuring a safe environment for residents, businesses and visitors to enjoy.”
He said the increase in crime during this busy period does not, however, reflect the normal statistics.
“Going forward, better event planning with an adequate policing presence is essential. The new car guard system will also support this,” he said.
