Smash and grab persists on Witkoppen
PAULSHOF - In the wake of mounting smash and grab incidents, victims are urged to seek help for trauma.
Reports abound of smash and grabs in the Fourways area, with attacks converging on main thoroughfares near highway overpasses. One victim reported a co-ordinated assault by five men, and both police and security companies have stepped up patrols in the area.
Monica (surname withheld) said smash and grabs were endemic in rush hour along Main Road between the highway bridge and the Witkoppen Road intersection. In one episode, Monica witnessed a man running from the roadside into the middle lane, smashing a car window, and wresting a phone from the heavily pregnant occupant.
Her own experience, meanwhile, was equally up-close and frightening. “I was parked in traffic at approximately 6pm, when I turned and saw a man pressed against my car looking in. He then broke the window and climbed into my car, feeling everywhere for items and asking for my phone,” Monica said.
The man swore violently, threatening to shoot when she said she did not have a phone. Monica managed to escape unhurt, but cleaning and repairs to her car cost R1 300 – a sum she views as stolen.
Carol Badenhorst, head trauma counsellor of Douglasdale police, says victims of smash and grabs may experience feelings of shock and powerlessness due to being trapped in the car. The symptoms, Badenhorst says, are similar to those experienced by victims of road rage. Following the incident, a victim might be afraid to drive, and will probably be hyper-vigilant. Despite such trauma, victims often do not receive counselling.
Smash and grabs are not viewed as being as serious as other crimes such as hijackings or house robberies, and the trauma unit is not required to contact victims.
However, Badenhorst urged victims of smash and grabs who experience trauma to seek help from police counselling units, even days after the incident.
“We never turn a case away, and no crime is treated as if it wasn’t serious,” Badenhorst promised.
“Crime is traumatic, it’s something out of the ordinary.”
Details: Douglasdale police trauma helpline 078 850 2341.
https://www.citizen.co.za/fourways-review/178636/private-security-initiatives-protect-public-areas/. Please also link it to https://www.citizen.co.za/fourways-review/179372/residents-sick-of-smash-and-grabs/
Drop a JDAM on Clay oven squatter camp and these problems will go away.
Similar to William Nicol, where you meet broadacres drive. The build up has got so bad that I have been involved in one incident involving an armed taxi driver which I reported (nothing happened) and also smash and grab. When the police operate that intersection all is well, on the days they are not present there will almost Definately be drama. No one doubts the police’s efforts however as soon as they are not at the inset section (broadacres dr and William Nicol, also by leaping frog) it becomes an incredibly stressful and scary place to drive. Please dispatch police regularly, there will no doubt soon be deaths out of aggression or Robery. The police are our only protection until the roadworks are complete