eMdloti gang targets tourists

A GANG of armed robbers has been terrorising tourists visiting the eMdloti area for the last 10 months. According to a resident, Gareth Nezar, they have successfully looted the units of 31 tourist families, striking in the early hours of the morning.

Nezar told the Northglen News that the gang, consisting of three men, aged 20 to 25, rely on the element of surprise and mostly target tourists who vacation in eMdloti. They strike primarily between 2am and 5am on the first night that the visitors arrive.

They target certain complexes and specific units within the complexes. “From what I have seen they do not have the intent to be violent. Their aim is to get in and get out with no confrontation. They target units with sliding doors that they can lift off the rail. They work silently. Out of the 31 robberies I have only witnessed four incidents where the victims have woken up while they were still in the unit. They are so skilled and organised that they steal the cell phones and other electric equipment from the bedside table next to where the victims are sleeping. It is also amazing how they speedily slip down the complexes, sometimes with bags weighing 25kg,” he said.

On Tuesday last week Nezar woke up to the familiar sound of the gang members running and jumping on the roof of his home. They had just struck one of the units on North Beach Road.

“I have woken up several times to the terrifying screams of the victims who have woken up to find their place looted. I feel so bad for the tourists. Some of them have no one to turn to for help,” he said.

Tired of feeling like a victims, the brave resident, along with the targeted tourist, pursued the gang as they fled into the bush. The armed guards, security company and police refused to track the suspects, he said.

For months Nezar had been tracking the band’s criminal activities, trying to figure out how they function. As he crawled through the bush he searched for the secret cave where he had previously found stolen items.

“They have made four entrances to the bushed area between North Beach Road and Bellamont Road. Several metres into the bush they have cut pathways into the vegetation to ease their movement. Along one of the paths I found a trail of wallets and items from the victims, until in a dark corner I accidentally surprised the gang while they sifted through their loot,” he said.

It was then that one of the men attempted to attack Nezar with a knife. “I could not get away quickly enough – my legs felt like jelly and my heart was pounding as I leaped through the thorny bushes. I escaped close to my house and phoned a local security company for help. I knew where the gang was going and I knew how to find them,” he said.

The duo returned to the bush with security guards, armed with pangas. “We went back to the vegetation where I had found them minutes earlier, surrounding all exit paths from the bush, but the gang was fast and had managed to flee,” he said.

They managed to recover most of the victim’s clothes as well as some of his electronic items and passports, but the gang escaped with a laptop and four cell phones.

“I know that chasing after these men was not clever, and I definitely wont be doing it again in the future. I have just become tired of watching it happen again and again. People think that there is no crime in eMdloti, but if they were to map the statistics like I have they would discover that there is a lot of criminal activity in the areas of eMdloti that do not contribute to the UIP, where security initiatives have been put in place,” he said.