Two Pursuits, Two Arrests: Your Neighbourhood This Week

It started with a call no one wants to make. A truck driver, robbed at gunpoint in Settlers Park, his phone, wallet and keys gone in seconds, the suspects vanishing into St Georges Park before anyone could catch a breath.

‍

But this one didn't end there. Our Rapid Intervention Unit picked up the trail on CCTV out of How Avenue, a silver Amarok on the move. Hours later it resurfaced in Walmer, and Armed Response Officer Bravo 10 made the call that changed everything: eyes on, don't lose him. What followed was a rolling pursuit through the southern suburbs, Wesleyan Street, Victoria Road, Villiers Road, onto Main Road, the suspect weaving through traffic and robots trying to shake the tail. Backup closed in from every direction, and in Circular Drive, Lorraine, the vehicle was boxed in. Two suspects detained, no shots fired, no one hurt, handed straight over to SAPS. One officer who refused to lose the trail turned a robbery into an arrest.

‍

Days later, our RIU was back at it, this time on a vehicle SAPS had been trying to pin down for a while. A blue Toyota Corolla had been linked to a string of thefts out of vehicles across Humewood and Lorraine, and when it was spotted near Humewood, Officer Bravo 10 put shift A on alert. Spotter calls came in from William Moffat, then 8th Avenue, Walmer, and Officer Bravo 10 caught sight of the Corolla and stayed on it, calling in a second RIU unit to close the gap. The chase ran straight into a busy scene at Buffelsfontein Road, where SAPS was already on the robots managing an accident. Officer Bravo 10 flashed the vehicle down, Officer Bravo 56 backed him up, and the driver pulled over right behind the waiting SAPS van. The Corolla was handed to Walmer SAPS and impounded on the spot, taken off the road while investigations into the thefts continue.

‍

Two pursuits, two vehicles off the street, and two reminders of what fast coordination between our teams and SAPS can do.

‍

That is the kind of week it was. Between Monday 27 July and Sunday 2 August, Atlas Security responded to 75 incidents across Nelson Mandela Bay, an average of just over 10 a day, with Saturday the busiest by far at 18 call outs. Most of what our teams attended to was residential (52 incidents), with 23 commercial call outs across the metro.

‍

Theft remained the number one issue on the ground, with 21 confirmed cases and a further 15 attempts stopped or interrupted before anything was taken. Burglaries accounted for 9 confirmed break-ins and 3 more attempts, while our teams also responded to 8 medical emergencies, 7 vehicle accidents, and 5 robberies of person. Twelve of the week's incidents resulted in a SAPS case being opened.

‍

Gqeberha Central and Summerstrand were the busiest areas this week, each logging 6 incidents, followed by Sidwell with 4. Walmer and Springfield rounded out the top five with 3 each. On the other end of the scale, suburbs like Adcockvale, Ben Kamma, Cotswold, Deal Party and Struandale recorded just a single incident each this week, part of a much longer list of 30 suburbs where our teams were only called out once.

‍

Numbers on a page rarely tell the full story. Behind every entry this week was a resident who pressed a panic button, a business owner who made a call, and a team member who got there. That's what stood between a bad moment and a worse one, again and again, all week.

‍

A Few Ways To Stay a Step Ahead

‍

• Arm your alarm every time you leave, even for a quick trip. Several of this week's incidents happened at properties where the system wasn't set.
• Keep gates, fences and boundary walls in good repair. A surprising number of entries this week came down to a cut wire or a climbed wall.
• If you spot a vehicle you don't recognise circling or parked with intent, report it. Early information is often what turns a patrol into a pursuit that ends the right way.
• Copper theft is still a steady target for opportunists. If you have exposed piping or cabling, consider a coating or visible marking that makes it harder to move.

‍

Your World Secure In Our Hands.

‍