The weather contributed to the theft of valuable items during a burglary at the Modise household in Strydom Street on the night of Tuesday 29 October.
As Abe Modise explained it, the perpetrators used a classic modus operandi to steal a plasma television set and three cellphones from his house.
At around 11.30pm, while Abe and his wife were in bed, their son was asleep in his bedroom and their daughter (a Grade 12 pupil) was studying with a friend who stayed over, thunder struck outside the house. The sound didn’t alarm them but allowed three young men to enter the house after breaking a window pane when thunder struck.
“This is an old trick to get into houses in the suburbs,” Modise told the Record, who got the information from his brother who used to work as a prison warden.
“They target places in this turbulent weather [sic].
“The sound of thunder doesn’t bother you but they strike when the thunder does, and enter your home.”
Modise did not confront the intruders. “They were shouting and making a lot of noise, intimidating us, but thankfully they never touched or harmed anyone.”
What disappoints him most about the incident is not that their items were stolen or that their window pane was damaged, but that the security company that installed a panic button responded to their activation much later. The family also was disappointed that not a single neighbour came over to see what was happening or to help out.
“I am sorry to make the comparison but if this happened in a township, everyone would be gathered around your house – whether just to witness the events or to help to stop the criminals.”
Although the Modise family doesn’t belong to a neighbourhood watch, Abe believes that without neighbours standing together and intervening when a crime is being committed, the neighbourhood is vulnerable to more, similar crimes.
“If you as a burglar know that you can target a household without neighbours interfering with you operations, you’ll target the area again and again.”
Suffering around R16 000 in damages, including replacing the window pane, Abe then opened a case of burglary with the Roodepoort police.
Roodepoort police spokesperson Vincent Mashiteng wasn’t available to comment about the crime.
