Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Writing towards repair
  • A transgressive tour de force
  • NEWS FLASH: Man sweeps audience off feet
  • Exploring technological dystopia through music 
  • An incendiary double bill 
  • Reflecting on disconnected conversations
  • Setswana dance takes centre stage 
  • Sex toys, racism, and the white guy
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Tazz alert: thieves on a spree
Uncategorized

Tazz alert: thieves on a spree

_Gr0cCc0Tts_By _Gr0cCc0Tts_August 25, 2011No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

If you own a Toyota Tazz, keep an eye on it – that's the word on the street. Rhodes University’s Campus Protection Unit, Grahamstown Police and Hi-Tec officers deny there's been a noticeable spike in the past month, but there have been two thefts and two attempted thefts of Tazz model in recent weeks.

If you own a Toyota Tazz, keep an eye on it – that's the word on the street. Rhodes University’s Campus Protection Unit, Grahamstown Police and Hi-Tec officers deny there's been a noticeable spike in the past month, but there have been two thefts and two attempted thefts of Tazz model in recent weeks.

Hill Street resident Janet Wilson awoke in the early hours of 11 August to find her Toyota Tazz had vanished from outside her house.

Elvira van Noort, owner of a backpackers in George Street, said her Tazz had been stolen within half an hour of parking it at 9pm on 6 August.

In both cases, there were no traces of broken glass on the ground, so the windows had probably not been smashed. This suggested that the thief had entered using a tool such as an Allen key, which broke the ball bearing in the lock and made it easy for a thief to open the car door, said Hi-Tec employee Erich Nel. An Allen key could also be used in the ignition, to start the car.

Organised crime
Victims of car theft agree that this appears to be a highly organised crime. Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirms this. She revealed that Grahamstown police recently arrested a group of four men in connection with car theft.

The men, who were driving a gold Toyota Avanza, had come from Umtata and were each carrying between R400 and R500. “This money was intended to go towards filling up stolen vehicles in order to make a quick getaway,” said Govender.

While the Rhodes Campus Protection Unit claims there has been only one car theft on campus this year, thanks to their high-profile presence there, students living off-campus have had worse luck.

Rhodes student Claire Martin’s Tazz was tampered with on the same morning Wilson's disappeared. The interior of the car was a wreck, prompting the man who towed the car away to say it might as well have been stolen, because the damage was going to cost Martin a fortune.

Another student, Kirsten Macgillivray, heard a car pull up outside her Milner Street digs on Tuesday 9 August. She said she heard someone fiddling with her car and ran outside. She saw the men jump into a waiting vehicle and drive quickly away.

Nel, who believes that the rate of car-theft has increased over the past two years, said thieves were sent orders by their superiors to steal specific makes of cars, which were used for their parts. Older-model cars were mostly targeted, as they seldom had tracking systems installed. It was often difficult to catch the criminals, particularly if they were part of a bigger crime organisation. It was up to individuals to be diligent about their vehicles, said Captain Govender.

Top Tips for protecting your car

  • Be aware of cars following you when driving home at night. If you feel like you are being followed, drive to the nearest police station.
  • Park your car in a well-lit area at night.
  • Look out for cars in your area that you don’t recognise and whose occupants are acting in an unusual way.
  • Prevent your car from being an attraction – don’t leave valuables in your car. If you have a detachable CD player, remove it and keep it hidden. Criminals might want to steal something from your vehicle and end up stealing your vehicle”.
  • Don’t leave spare keys hidden in your car.
  • Invest in a tracker system, gear lock or immobiliser.

– from Captain Mali Govender
 

These are the areas in which Tazz cars were stolen or tampered with

 


View Tazz related incidents in a larger map

Previous ArticleChaos wins in tournament finals
Next Article Tackling Aids from the top
_Gr0cCc0Tts_

Related Posts

Johan Carinus tree planting

Learn music fit for a king

First place for Malawian journalist- Need to upload Pix

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.