Gatvol community shows its fighting spirit
Arrest of suspected extortionist in group effort by residents, police and security personnel shows way for crime-plagued citizens
South Africans are resilient.
Quips such as “at least I’m alive” or “it could’ve been worse” after people are held up at gunpoint and robbed are common around the braai, but this week an East London community banded together to catch a suspected criminal instead of becoming another statistic.
Panicked Beacon Bay residents were in a state on online crime safety groups, whispering behind their security gates about receiving threats to their families’ safety, after an attempt was made to extort R22,000 from each of about 30 homeowners.
The panic, triggered by an ominous threatening letter sent to each home, was so acute that the journalist investigating the racket — this reporter — was reported to the authorities as a suspected accomplice posing as a newshound trying to get information!
A 48-year-old suspect was finally arrested this week in a sting operation, but the breakthrough only increased the panic among some families, who questioned whether they were safe in their own homes
— were his accomplices still out there?
More than 30 residents had received copies of the threatening letter, wrapped in danger tape and thrown over their gates, between 1am and 5am on Wednesday November 9.
The letter demanded that R22,000 be dropped off at a certain time and placed inside a demarcated bin behind an electrical transformer on the corner of Clearview Crescent and Lagoon View Drive in eight days.
The suspect was apprehended in an undercover operation on Wednesday at the drop-off point, allegedly with the same danger tape in his backpack.
Residents were asked to keep mum about the planned operation on social media as police and private security personnel waited to see who would arrive at the collection point.
The tension was palpable: some residents even phoned in to report suspicious vehicles, which turned out to be those of undercover cops.
Images of the arrested suspect lying facedown in the grass, hands behind his back, were quickly disseminated on online safety groups, with members trying to figure out who the man was, and whether he was part of a syndicate or working alone.
Two vehicles were abandoned nearby, one a white bakkie with a smashed front — allegedly the same vehicle caught on CCTV footage that showed someone throwing letters over fences in the suburb the week before.
The dramatic foiling of a brazen criminal act was a first for the suburb in that it was a collective effort by police, security company staff, community crime-fighters and brave homeowners.
Through their civic-minded actions, they ensured that the people of Beacon Bay are unlikely to be targeted again by a similar racket — affected homeowners have been encouraging others who had kept quiet about the threats to go to the police station and lay complaints of extortion.
Private security companies helped beef up the operation by bringing in more vehicles and heavier artillery, and by installing more panic buttons in people’s homes.
The members of more than 50 Whatsapp groups chatted constantly, and organisers of the groups worked tirelessly to help put together the successful sting.
Ultimately, the metro, the suburb, and the nation are all connected in a web of criminal activity, but what we lack in safety we can make up for in community, bravery and street smarts.