I’ve been having quite a interesting morning which started at 4:00 already.
Earlier in the week I see my neighbour is having his roof pressure washed and sprey painted and since he had it done 2 or 3 years ago, I send him a message, asking why so soon again. He says no it wasn’t ### paint the roof is still good, but he’s putting up solar so figured he would get it done in the process. On Thursday and Friday the panels go up and the Sunsynk goes in, but the battery delivery will only be on Monday so I’m disappointed on his behalf for having to wait.
This morning at 4:00 I hear 2 gun shots, a crash and a bang, get up, call the security, we are already next door. I call next door, hulle het my #### panels probeer steel.
Turns out 2 of the 4 guys who put up the panels on Thursday and Friday, wanted to come fetch them again this morning.
Neighbour woke up because of a noise on the roof, confirmed he wasn’t imagining it, called the security while looking out the windows. When the security company arrived they walked around the house with torches and spotted a place where his electric fense was tampered with and where someone clearly gained access. Then another noise on the roof and the security guy gave 2 warning shots. Then one of the perps moerred off the roof panel and all, breaking his arm and they think some ribs as well.
We live very close to a highway, the police and security companies later found the perps get away vehicle standing next to the highway behind some bushes, a panel van with someone elses panels and some cabling already in the back.
Buurman’s newly purchased Roboguard kit and extra alarm passives for when the solar panels come is lying on the dining room table, he planned to install it today.
This is really sad. Myself was very fortunate to defuse an attempted hijacking on the N1 just north of Pretoria at 10am today.
I stopped to rearrange and tighten my ladders when 3 men stopped. 2 got out and worked together to try and take control of my vehicle.
With a mock charge and pretending to draw a weapon from my hip I managed to scare them off. They jumped in their vehicle and sped off.
After reporting the incident, the police informed me that they are investigating another incident at 1am where someone else were hijacked and robbed of all their cargo on almost the exact same spot.
We believe they were after all the spares that was visible on the trailer and the vehicle…
Sjoe that’s scary, glad you are ok Jaco.
This was the R21, our neighbourhood is right next to the R21.
Unfortunately driving on highways around Pretoria at night has become like driving at night in our neighbouring countries, something you simply don’t do unless you really have to.
Another favourite in the last while is spiking, just a month or 2 ago a friend of mine drove over spikes on the N4 just after midnight, fortunately he kept his cool and just kept going for a few km, all 4 tyres and rims mike tango, but he and his wife plus their 2 small kids is still alive. Earlier in the year a guy got shot on the highway in a similar insident.
Edit, sorry, for some reason thought Jaco’s incident was at 1 in the morning, lees soos my gat.
The security company that covers my alarm/armed response will help you out up to 30km or so out of town, which is roughly how far the airport is from me. We’ve had occasional cases of spiking on that area of the N2, which is one reason this “feature” of the security company is such a good thing. If you hit a spike, you can call the security company while you keep driving it slowly.
The most popular security company in our area Bull, is very good and very active, a few years ago one of their guys actually rented the house across the street from us which was quite handy.
If there’s a emergency call to the CPF they along with some of the other security companies in the area respond whether you are on their books or not and they’ll help where they can. Yesterday morning for example shortly after the gunshots 2 other security companies was on the scene along with Bull and some CPF guys, everyone helping out.
Criminals are running riot in this country of ours since they know nothing will happen to them, that’s the sad sad fact of the matter.
Just look at these tavern shootings the last few weeks, the gang rape in Krugersdorp last week, car theft on the up especially in the last month etc.
Okay, I think there is a bit of a confusion, I was parked very close to the yellow line. The guy who wanted to get behind the steering, opened the door when the truck was close. I think the truck driver was a bit upset with him and hooted. The hooting drew my attention and then I saw the guy trying to get in. I dont think he tried to warn me as there was little chance that he could have known what was going down, but still his hooting did draw my attention to that side of the vehicle.
EDIT: If it wasnt for his hooting they would have succeeded as the guy on my side of the vehicle was really good in keeping me busy with his conversation. He was so good that I had no idea of what was happening on the driver side of my vehicle. ( Hench my mention of the 2 working together in an earlier post)
That is unfortunately true. Most forum members, by now, know that I try to be coldly accurate and unemotional about the state of the country, rejecting a lot of the negative about the country, but in this particular case, this is accurate.
At the risk of derailing. You will often see people asking that the death penalty should be brought back. And that is a long discussion we can have, but let me be blunt: It won’t work.
It won’t work, because only 7% of murderers are ever caught (these might be old stats, though I doubt it has improved much). Even less are successfully prosecuted. What is the point of a very heavy punishment if you don’t catch the perpetrator? What is more, and this psychological fact, the punishment does not serve as a deterrent if there isn’t a logical connection going from a) if I do the crime, then b) I will get caught and c) I will get punished. For one, a criminal rarely plans logically on this level, but beyond that… in this country b and c simply doesn’t follow anyway, in the majority of cases.
We need to stop arguing about the punishment, and get the guys caught…
Same goes for rape, after this gang rape last week, the ruling party suddenly called for chemical castration for rape convicts, but you have to catch and convict them first.
When it comes to the situation in our country, actually with all things in life, I like to see myself as a realistic optimist if that even makes any sense.
Crazy that it used to feel like you had to travel on some lonely road late at night to risk being hijacked, now it just happens in the middle of the day on a big public highway.
Be interesting to know how the panels were mounted? I’ve always done my own installs using alum tube attached to the roof, and the panels then pop riveted to that with SS rivets. Takes a lot of work to remove, which is time-consuming and noisy…
Things don’t sound great for you guys over in SA. Crime is an issue everywhere around the world where there is unemployment and not much hope. They have little to lose. A problem for much of the world. Wherever people are left to fend for themselves the law can’t keep up with the the numbers that turn to crime. Not sure I really want to have an explosion of prison numbers to keep up with the numbers. The USA is one place where prison numbers are getting higher as there are many that are business. I don’t want to live in a world of gated communities, security guards patrolling and pushing the have nots into prison. There has to be a better way.
The thing about movies is that it is social commentary. The director is saying, sometimes subtly hinting and sometimes shouting, if we continue on the present course, this is where we will end up.
Of course inherently it is a slippery slope argument, which is often fallacious, but still, movies are not just movies
