The torching of a house in Lindhaven on Monday night has taken a turn for the worst.
On Friday morning squatters from the Princess Informal Settlement started looting the house and its outside buildings.
By about 11am, when the record arrived, the roofs, doors, windowsills and anything else moveable has been stripped. The Western Suburbs Roodepoort Neighbourhood Watch (WSRNW) could only stand helplessly by and watch from a distance, not willing to take on the rampaging mob. Some bystanders expressed their dismay at the apparent tardiness of the police. A lone police vehicle drove past the property a few times but whenever out of sight the looters returned.
Colonel André Laing of Roodepoort police station explained that the police could not post a permanent guard at the house and that the owner got a security company to do this. No security was on site though.
The owner could not be reached for comment.
