WhilePublic Eyevisited Allandale Park yesterday (Wednesday) morning, it stood witness to a pedestrian being robbed in broad daylight in the presence of numerous witnesses. The park is said to have become an ideal haven for vagrants and criminals due to the overgrown vegetation. This has led to pedestrians being robbed regularly and fires allegedly being lit to access copper from stolen pipes on a daily basis.
Residents and security companies said the bushes provide the perfect cover for such activity, as people often fear venturing into the bushes to see what is happening there or attempting to retrieve items that have been stolen from them. WhenPublic Eyevisited the park on Wednesday morning to see the overgrown vegetation, fires, and vagrants, this reporter witnessed a criminal act firsthand. As Samuel Deepnarain (39) was walking to Copesville, his money from his disability grant fell out of his knee compression sleeve.
When he noticed the money missing, he saw a vagrant running into the park’s overgrown vegetation. He chased the vagrant, and they then got into a physical altercation as Deepnarain tried to search him. While the money was not on the vagrant’s person, Deepnarain said the vagrant immediately ran away with one of his friends, who was holding a packet.
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Deepnarain suspects that the vagrant, prior to the confrontation, put the approximately R1 700 in the packet. Bystanders saw a man with a packet walking past the park, but when they heard Deepnarain saying, “he stole my money”, the man jumped over the railings and disappeared under the bridge. AET, Mi7, and other security companies were stopped by the bystanders who informed them of the incident. Their guards then tried to locate the suspects by doing patrols in areas the suspects may have accessed through shortcuts in the park.
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