Gate crashers hit La Lucia

A La Lucia domestic worker was lucky to escape unharmed when robbers fired shots during a home invasion at the weekend. Blue Security operations manager Brian Jackson said the home invasion was one of several incidents reported in the greater Durban North area over the past few days.
Jackson said the domestic worker had manage to go into hiding in the house after she spotted armed robbers in a white BMW about to gatecrash the Churchill Avenue property at 12.48pm on Saturday. “The robbers gained entry to the home through the kitchen door which was open and fled with a flat screen television, laptops and jewellery. The robbers fired several shots as they fled the scene. No injuries were reported,” he said.
Durban North SAPS attended the scene of the crime.
Earlier, on Saturday at around noon gate crashers forced open the driveway gate of a property in Spode Place in Umgeni Park. “The housebreakers then went to the back of the property where they smashed a window pane and forced open a sliding door to gain entry. A laptop was reported stolen,” Jackson said.
Greenwood Park SAPS attended the scene of the crime.
Jackson added that robbers had also held up a security guard in Marseilles Crescent in Briardene just after midnight on Saturday.  “The robbers removed a concrete pillar from the property wall to gain entry and then robbed the security guard of his cellphone before tying him up and pushing him into a room on the property. The gang then forced open an office door and fled with a microwave which was later recovered near the perimeter of the property.” he said.
Jackson advised business owners and residents to install additional external layers of security for an early warning system.
“External beams, an electric fence and an anti-gatecrashing kit fitted to the main gates and linked to the main alarm system offer residents and business owners the assurance that they will be alerted the moment anyone tampers with the gate or tries to jump over a boundary wall. This buys time to run hide in a ‘safe’ room and to alert their security company and the police to the emergency,” he said.