An extensive investigation into the recent spate of burglaries within the greater Fourways areas has led to the apprehension of one suspect believed to have been closely involved in the burglaries.
Wahl Bartmann, Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Services Group says the unacceptably high number of incidents required a multi-disciplinary task team involving the Fidelity Estates division; Fidelity Specialised Services; Fidelity’s Mobile Drone unit and Airwing; Dainfern security; members of SAPS Douglasdale, and information from the Fidelity/ Vumacam network. Bartmann confirmed that a suspect had been arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning, 6 May, and several stolen items recovered. He said although one suspect was still at large, investigators are confident that ongoing follow-up operations will result in his arrest as the net closes on these syndicates.
Extensive use was made of the Fidelity Vumacam system during this investigation. “By correlating information relating to a specific vehicle picked up in the vicinity of similar incidents since the beginning of the year with the location of tracked devices stolen from recent incidents, the teams were able to successfully red flag the vehicle as soon as it entered the area,” he says.
Bartmann said he would like to commend all the various teams, and particularly the members of the Douglasdale SAPS, for their excellent teamwork and commitment to bringing these suspects to book. “We do however want to caution residents that whilst this particular syndicate might have been caught, residents should not become complacent as the current socio-economic situation in the area is of such a nature that the trend may persist as this syndicate will simply be replaced by a new one. “We urge customers to proactively engage the Fidelity Estates division to ensure we minimize the risk at our Estates and complexes going forward,” says Bartmann.
SAPS Douglasdale will now conclude the investigation to further link the suspect/s to other incidents through DNA and fingerprints from the crime scenes and extensive follow-up operations.
