CAPE Town’s most popular tourist beaches are in the grip of a crime wave, with increasing numbers of bathers reporting that thieves are making off with their belongings while they swim, police said this week.
“It has become an organised crime in itself. We now have thieves going down to the beach and watching people to see what they leave on the sand while they swim,” said Inspector Allan Hamman.
Sergeant Johann Louw of the Camps Bay police station said there had been a “vast increase” in thefts at Camps Bay and the neighbouring Clifton beaches since the weather turned sunny a few weeks ago.
“Theft on the beaches has increased by more than a few hundred percent. People come in and say their jewellery, cellphones and wallets have disappeared while they were in the water,” Louw said.
Louw said the police station was hard-pressed to patrol Camp Bay’s long stretch of beach as on average it only had four officers on shift and they also covered Table Mountain, where several muggings were reported this year.
He appealed to beachgoers to be more careful.
“Much of the problem is due to negligence. People leave their cellphones in their shoes, they leave a wallet with R3000 lying on a towel … “
Louw said a government ban on releasing crime statistics meant that he could not give the number of people who have fallen victim to theft on the beaches, but it had happened mostly to Capetonians as foreigners tended to be more cautious.
He said police had been handing out crime prevention pamphlets to beachgoers and hoped they would be given more manpower to guard the beaches once the tourist season starts in earnest in December. – AFP