Gate motor thefts spike in Durban North

Durban North residents have been urged to take extra precautions for their gate motors, Northglen News reports.

This comes after more than 30 homes were robbed of their gate motors in the past three months.

A Glenhills resident and a recent victim of the crime, who spoke to the Northglen News on the condition of anonymity, said the motors were being removed carefully.

“It seems as if the person(s) removing them don’t want to take the motors out to allow for easy access to the house for a robbery at a later stage, but rather so they can sell the motors. There is obviously a market for these secondhand motors.”

When asked about what safety measures residents can take to protect their homes, she said: “Take every precaution necessary to protect your property.  This is the first time since we bought our property [October 1997] that we experienced something like this. To prevent this type of theft, residents should invest in a device [antitheft unit] to ensure that the motor is not stolen again.  Our property is very secure.  We have trellidors on all our doors/windows.  We have an alarm as well as outside beams.  The gate area, however, where the motor is situated, is not covered by the outside beams, meaning that the perpetrators have simply jumped the wall [quite high] and quietly and professionally removed the motor.”

READ MORE: Video: Motor gate suspects caught on camera

Marshall Security’s Kyle van Reenen said most of the men involved in these crimes arrive with tools, wire cutters or knives. They either remove the entire motor or just the batteries from inside.

“Since the start of the year, there have been 10 incidents of this nature, and in the past three months, there have been 20 incidents in the Durban North area including La Lucia, Umhlanga, Glen Hills and Glen Anil. We haven’t seen a huge link between the gate motor theft and housebreaking. There seems to be a completely different gang doing this. Quick petty theft. They steal the motor as quick as they can and then sell it.

“Ideally residents are urged to get the antitheft bracket. Alarm systems can also have a mag centre that can be attached to it , so if you pull the cover off, it will activate your alarm  it will be an extra zone on your alarm so you will be able to notify your security company and let them know that it’s been tampered with. You just need to create more and more layers to prevent them from getting  to it,” added Van Reenen.

– Caxton News Service

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