Tourists marked by organised crooks

GRASKOP – “How do they source this information?” asked SAPS spokesman Brig Leonard Hlathi. “It has become evident there is a syndicate operating in the Lowveld region orchestrating these robberies.”

This follows another two incidents of holidaymakers being targeted in the area. A German couple was robbed on their way to Graskop on Monday night. The shaken foreigners disclosed that two armed men in a silver vehicle forced them onto the back seat of their vehicle and drove them to a secluded area.

“The robbers took all their electronic devices, German identity documents and other items worth an estimated R47 000 and abandoned them in a bush, under strict instructions to stay there for 40 minutes,” Hlati said.

In a separate incident last Friday at 20:30, a couple from the Netherlands and friends were travelling to their booked place, when they noticed a silver Polo Vivo following them, according to Hlathi.

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After the masked men instructed them to stop by flashing their lights, they approached the tourists’ vehicle and forced them to hand over their valuables.

“They had a speedpoint with them and verified the pin codes of the tourists,” Hlathi said. “If you look at the reported cases, it is always the same vehicles involved and the tourists are always taken and released in the bush,” Hlathi said.

The police are patrolling these main routes, but due to limited resources, cannot be present everywhere.
“There are tourist monitors deployed to look after these foreigners. We must work together to address this. There are people who know what is going on who must come forward.”

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