Crime on Table Mountain

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Toko
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Crime on Table Mountain

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Ambushed on the mountain

January 24 2015 at 12:56pm
By CARYN DOLLEY

A resurgence of mountain crime saw a cyclist bound and gagged by panga-wielding robbers on a Tokai trail, while two US tourists were assaulted and robbed on Table Mountain barely 24 hours later.

Now furious cyclists say they’re being forced off mountain trails in the south peninsula, and have to migrate to the safer northern suburbs as they fear for their lives.

The incidents have put problem of criminals operating along mountain routes back in the spotlight.

About five years ago the Community Safety Department set up a group to deal with the issue, and about two years ago the situation made international headlines when a Norwegian exchange student was attacked on Signal Hill, and later raped.

In the latest crime, the two US tourists were held up on the popular Platteklip Gorge hiking route at about 8.15am on Friday.

Merle Collins, regional spokeswoman for South African National Parks (SANParks), said a man dressed in hiking gear approached the two women, then took out a knife and robbed them.

“During the robbery (they) were pushed around,” she said.

Collins said the tourists reported the incident, and the mugger was arrested 30 minutes later.

“Rangers cordoned off the area and closed down all possible escape routes. The mugger was arrested... He was positively identified and all the stolen goods were found and returned to the owners,” she said.

In the attack on the cyclist, who declined to speak to the media, the man was ambushed on the Tokai trail at about 10am on Thursday while returning from the Constantiaberg radio mast.

Robert Vogel, founder of the Table Mountain Bikers group to which the cyclist belongs, said the man had detailed the attack in an e-mail.

He said:

“I was attacked… while coming down from the mast on my own, near to the path down to Hout Bay. Four men armed with knives and pangas.

“They stole whatever they could, tied me up and slashed my tyres. I was not injured.

“This is no longer a safe place to ride alone.”

The cyclist said the muggers had probably been planning to target hikers too.

Table Mountain National Parks staff had been helpful when he reported the attack, he added.

Rangers later found the cyclist’s bike.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said no arrests were made, and the robbery was being investigated.

Vogel said it was not the first time criminals had operated in the vicinity of where the attack took place. In March two cyclists were robbed and a runner tied up and mugged.

On Friday Pedal Power Association chairman Steve Hayward said Thursday’s attack highlighted the broader issue of cyclists being targeted on the mountain.

“It is a major problem because it’s happening on a more continuous basis on the mountain,” he said, urging the authorities to come up with new ways to tackle the issue.

He said the association had donated a dog to the Table Mountain National Park’s rangers, and would consider funding other initiatives to boost safety.

Hayward confirmed that many cyclists who lived near these trails had started joining clubs in the northern suburbs to avoid falling victim to criminals operating on the mountain.

“The Tygerberg Mountain Bike Club has seen a phenomenal growth… There you’re riding on private farms, and volunteers police the area,” he said.

Max Menzies, a Noordhoek cyclist who rides regularly in the area where the attack took place, said he was fed up with criminals constantly targeting cyclists.

He said cyclists feared being mugged on roads, and now mountains.

Menzies was nearly mugged in the vicinity about two years ago.

Cyclists had started avoiding mountains, he confirmed.

“We’re just not going there anymore.

“We can’t do early morning rides, we can’t ride alone… Slowly but surely they’re strangling us,” Menzies said of the criminals.

“So many of my friends, living on the doorstep of the mountain, are not using it anymore… People are going to the northern suburbs. There are better facilities and they ensure our safety.”

Yesterday Louis Loubser, chairman of the Tygerberg Mountain Bike Club, said the club’s membership had grown. Aside from the sport growing in popularity, another reason was because of cyclists concerned about their safety.

“There are certainly members belonging to Tygerberg from further out, like the southern suburbs and Stellenbosch,” he said.

- Saturday Argus


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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Cape hikers attacked with panga, knife

February 9 2015 at 10:35am
By Chelsea Geach

Cape Town - Two more mountain muggings and a separate theft have left Cape Town’s outdoor enthusiasts reeling after a group of hikers were attacks with pangas on Saturday in the Constantiaberg range.

Bernard Loots, 35, said he was hiking in a group of four along the Hoerikwaggo Trail between Silvermine and Orange Kloof when two men attacked them.

“Two guys jumped out from behind a bush in front of my friend who was walking in front. The one guy was carrying a large panga and the other a knife.”

The attackers had moved in at 1pm on top of Constantiaberg, at the point where the trail hits the tar road at East Fort. One group member was hit over the head with the flat side of the panga. “We were all completely in shock, but since there was nowhere to run we just got rid of our gear and tried to create distance between the attackers and ourselves.”

Loots said mountain bikers and residents in nearby houses helped them off the mountain.

“I find it absolutely appalling that SANParks can promote such a hike, charge us a vast sum of money to do it, but cannot ensure our safety,” he said. “This was not the first and it won’t be the last attack. Let’s just hope the next victims are also lucky enough to escape with their lives.”

Table Mountain National Park spokeswoman Merle Collins said she could not confirm the attacks yet because no case number had been registered with police.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said the Hout Bay police station received a telephonic complaint about the incident, but nobody had visited the station to make a statement.

The attackers were aged between 18 and 22. One was wearing a white cap, and the other had two missing front teeth.

In another incident on Sunday evening, climbing gear was stolen at Higgovale Quarry.

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

Cape Argus


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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Table Mountain Rangers launch manhunt after more hikers are threatened with a panga

12 February 2015: Following a second mugging on Saturday 8 January 2015 in approximately the same vicinity of a previous mugging three weeks ago, Table Mountain National Park rangers have launched a massive manhunt for the perpetrators. Rangers are daily combing the area in their search to prevent and apprehend the suspects.

At this stage the description of the attackers in the two different attacks are not similar and it is therefore ruled out that the perpetrators are the same offenders.

On Saturday afternoon, 4 hikers were approached by 2 males who proceeded to rob them of their belongings. One of the culprits was carrying a panga and used it to subdue the hikers. Thankfully, the hikers suffered no serious injuries. Rangers were contacted and immediately started searching the area.

Due to the vastness of the area and with several possible escape routes the robbers managed to escape. TMNP Park Manager, Paddy Gordon strongly condemned the attack and would like to assure the public that everything is being done to ensure that the perpetrators are arrested. “We are working closely with SAPS in compiling identikits and SAPS has assured us of their commitment in bringing these criminals to book.

Issued by:
South African National Parks (SANParks) Frontier Region Communications

Enquiries:
Merle Collins
Regional Communications Manager: Cape Region*
Email: merle.collins@sanparks.org


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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Mountain robbers strike again in Tokai

February 14 2015 at 02:23pm
By Caryn Dolley

ANOTHER cyclist has been attacked by knife-wielding robbers along a Tokai mountain trail, the third mugging in the vicinity in three weeks.

The attack yesterday comes as Weekend Argus established that, in a desperate effort to try to protect themselves, some mountain users are considering arming themselves with weapons, including guns.

Mountain crimes, an ongoing problem for years, recently surged again, with the three latest incidents involving robbers brandishing either pangas or knives.

Yesterday’s attack on the cyclist

happened a week after a group of hikers were robbed on a trail in the same vicinity, and three weeks after another cyclist was bound and gagged by panga-wielding robbers at the same spot.

Just days ago, Merle Collins, regional spokeswoman for South African National Parks (SANParks), said rangers were combing the area every day in a bid to prevent further attacks.

Yesterday Collins said she could not confirm the latest attack.

Weekend Argus understands that the cyclist was attacked along the tar road leading up to the Constantiaberg radio mast.

Renay Groustra, a professional mountain biker from Tokai, said he came across the cyclist after the robbery.

“There were two men. He managed to dodge the first one. The second one tackled him. They tied his wrists with rope and kicked him in the gut. They took his cellphone and watch, and slashed his tyres.”

The cyclist, whose name Groustra had not managed to learn, suffered a few scratches and called someone to fetch him using someone else’s cellphone.

“He was quite angry and talked about going out and laying a trap (for the robbers),” Groustra said, adding that he himself had been using the mountain for 15 years, but now felt quite shaken by the incident.

“It makes me feel really unsafe. I don’t even want to go ride there,” he said.

Last week Petra Neilon, of St James, and three friends were robbed in the same area after two men ambushed them while they were hiking.

“They were hiding in the fynbos and jumped out. I was looking down at my feet. I just heard: ‘Don’t run, don’t run.’

“One guy had a panga, the other a knife. The one with the panga hit my friend over the head with it,” she said.

Afterwards, some of her friends said they wished they had been carrying a gun.

Weekend Argus reported last month that a cyclist was bound and gagged by four robbers armed with knives and pangas in the same vicinity.

Yesterday the Table Mountain Bikers Facebook group posted a warning saying that hikers and cyclists should avoid the area, and that it should instead be closed.

One person commented that cyclists should ride with a 9mm pistol strapped to their chest, and a spade to bury any evidence.

Collins said that after the attack a week ago, the second in the vicinity, a manhunt was launched to find the robbers.

“At this stage the description of the attackers in the two different attacks are not similar, and it is therefore ruled out that the perpetrators are the same offenders.”

Asked what SANParks thought of mountain users carrying weapons on trails, she said they did not advise this since “the weapons can be used against them in an incident”.

Also this week, registered adventure guide Justin Lawson posted an article on the website Climb ZA debating self-defence options on the mountains, including the use of pepper spray, knives or batons.

He told Weekend Argus he posted it after noticing that people were discussing arming themselves on the site.

One said he would save up for a pistol.

“I became aware that many people are in fact taking a weapon into the mountain for means of defence. The reason for this, I believe, is because they are afraid of having their lives endangered by criminals,” Lawson said.

Andre van Schalkwyk, founder of Table Mountain Watch, which works to highlight mountain safety issues, said he recalled a hiker having modified his backpack to accommodate a pistol in a shoulder strap.

At the start of the year he had begun giving lectures, developed together with a conflict training company, about how to avoid conflict and using weapons.

Van Schalkwyk had so far lectured three groups from mainly mountain clubs.


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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Push for improved safety on mountain

July 21 2015 at 06:30am
By Lynette Johns


HIKING and mountain safety groups are calling for SANParks to establish a safety forum to find ways of stopping muggings on the mountain, after 10 people were robbed on Lion’s Head at the weekend.

But SANParks Table Mountain National Park spokesperson Merle Collins said there was already a safety forum, which included neighbourhood watches, police and volunteers, and operates as the need arose.

Ten people, nine of them tourists, were mugged on Lion’s Head on Sunday. Last week, three students were robbed.

At the beginning of the month, two hikers were mugged at Schoorsteenkop in Hout Bay and, in a separate incident, two cyclists were robbed of their expensive bikes and one was stabbed in the leg on the Black Hill cycling trail.

On each occasion the robbers threatened the victims with knives and took their belongings, including cellphones and wallets.

Collins said Lion’s Head has been “red-flagged” and there were more patrols. “We are actively searching for the perpetrators.”

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk confirmed the weekend’s incident.

On Sunday, Wian Verwoerd and his girlfriend, Nicole Cruise, from Ireland, were walking behind four groups of two hikers each when he saw two knife-wielding men approach them.

They threatened to shoot the hikers if they did not hand over their valuables. The men took their bags and ran off. The victims gave chase, but the robbers disappeared.

Hikers took to Facebook and Twitter to discuss safety on the mountain. Doreen McClarty, of the Meridian Hiking Club group, said friends of hers hiked with licensed firearms. Other members of the group expressed their dissatisfaction with the way SANParks dealt with safety issues.

Table Mountain Watch spokesperson André van Schalkwyk said he was increasingly hearing hikers wanting to protect themselves by carrying weapons.

“When criminals see their way clear to operating in a certain area, as we see now with Lion’s Head, then that’s because they have observed little or no visible policing in the area.”

But Collins said there is always a security presence on the mountain. There are up to three teams, comprising four people each, who patrol the mountain from Signal Hill to Tafelberg Road, she said.

lynette.johns@inl.co.za
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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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http://www.news24.com/Live/SouthAfrica/ ... m-20150721





Jenna Etheridge, News24

Cape Town – Two young, obviously fit muggers brazenly ran down a Lion’s Head trail in broad daylight at the weekend, stopping groups of tourists along the way to steal their belongings before carrying on.

But when the mugging victims tried to call the police toll-free line, the operator allegedly had no idea where Lion's Head was.

One of their victims, Stellenbosch University Phd student and researcher Asmus Zoch, even mistook the muggers for trail runners from afar. Zoch joined News24's Jenna Etheridge on Skype to discuss the incident. Watch the video above for the full interview.

Zoch is a trail runner himself and often hikes up the popular tourist attraction.

When he saw all the backpacks and purses slung across the muggers' bodies, it became clear that they were not using the trail for exercise.

To make matters worse, the tourists claimed they tried calling the 10111 emergency police number afterwards, but failed to get through or were greeted with an automatic recording.

“When we finally got to the police station, they didn’t know where Lion’s Head is so they said: ‘Well, we don’t know where it is and we don’t know what to do’,” Zoch claimed on Tuesday, adding that he didn’t know which police station they were put through to.

A South African man who was hiking with his Irish friend lower down the trail had apparently managed to hold onto his phone. Zoch said the man then called his sister to ask her to try the emergency number and she apparently experienced the same thing.



Zoch had earlier decided that the perfect way to introduce his French friend to Cape Town would be to hike up together, so they could enjoy the views.

Just hours after the developmental researcher arrived in the city, they were held up with a knife while ascending the mountain on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

“We were just talking about inequality and racial problems and the next moment is that these two guys come in front of us, and she thinks they are two friends of mine because she doesn’t expect anything … they hold a knife against her neck and tell her: ‘Give us everything or we kill you’,” he said.

Zoch, who is in the socio-economic policy unit at Stellenbosch University, said everything happened so fast.

When he was in Durban earlier in the year, a mugger held a knife to his stomach and demanded his belongings.

In comparison, Zoch did not feel too threatened this time because he didn’t have a knife pointed at him.

However, he handed over his phone and his friend handed her backpack with her passport, money and expensive jackets inside.

The two had to organise new travelling documents so she could make her hiking trip to the Alps later this week.



“They started high up in the mountain and every hiker coming up the mountain, they were on them in seconds. In that way, they could rob like nine people in total,” he said.

The other tourists, including some German women, lost everything, including cameras and passports, Zoch said.

"They were completely frustrated and desperate because they wanted to leave the country in the evening and they couldn’t anymore.”

Zoch claimed it took 25 minutes to get through to police, by which time the thieving pair had long since disappeared into a forest on the Camp’s Bay side of the mountain.

“We just know that the police never showed up and that it took forever to get a response.”

National police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo and the provincial police media office did not immediately respond to the claims.

After speaking to a ranger at the bottom of the trail, Zoch believed rangers may have been focusing their efforts on two rescue missions with a helicopter in the vicinity.

A detective later informed them that some passports and backpacks were recovered at the bottom of the mountain.



“In the afternoon, we talked at the city police station and asked them why they don’t know where Lion’s Head is. And they said that no, that’s not possible, because everyone would know where it is.”

Zoch said he would only hike up again if there were a lot of people, like during the full moon hike, or if security improved. However, he would continue to invite his friends to the country.

“My girlfriend from Germany is still coming to visit me in a few months and I still have other friends coming in November. This is such a beautiful country and it would be such a shame if people don’t come here anymore. We need these people for our tourism industry,” he said.


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

Post by nan »

that is new (for me) in these parts of South Africa 0*\


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

Post by Mel »

Media Release: Table Mountain National Park in shock
Date: 2016-03-08

Table Mountain National Park is in shock today because of the reported senseless murder of a 15-year old female in the lower Tokai section of the Park late Monday, 7 March 2016 afternoon.

While details of the incident are uncertain at this stage, the area was cordoned off to allow the South African Police Services (SAPS) forensic team to collect evidence at the crime scene. SAPS was assisted by South African National Parks (SANParks) Rangers to ensure that the area was not contaminated.

“The swiftness of this act has left the Park reeling especially since Lower Tokai is used by multi users groups on a daily basis and over the years this area has grown in popularity,” said Park Manager, Paddy Gordon.

Gordon further said that "with upper Tokai still closed to the general public due to terrain rehabilitation after the March 2015 fires, Lower Tokai provided an alternative for local residents to cycle, walk, horse ride and jog."

“SANParks wishes to offer its sincerest condolences to the family. Words cannot express our dismay and utter denunciation of this heinous act,” he said.

Issued by:
South African National Parks (SANParks), Cape Region

Enquiries:
Merle Collins (Mrs)
Regional Communications Manager: SANParks Cape Region
Tel: 27 (0) 21 689 4441, cell: 072 627 3910
Fax to Email: 086 6394 533

Paddy Gordon
Park Manager: Table Mountain National Park
Tel: 021 712 0527
Cell: 082 888 0353


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

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IN SUMMARY: Four men made their first appearance in Wynberg Magistrate's Court on Friday for the murder of 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger.

The State prosecutor laid out the charges the four face, including rape and murder. The court heard gruesome details about how the teenager had been raped and robbed of an iPhone, watch, headset and diamond ring.

Semen was found at the scene and has been sent of for analysis. The details left loved ones in court visibly shaken.

All four will apply for legal aid representation. Accused one complained about the conditions at Wynberg holding cells and why he would prefer to be held at Pollsmoor Prison. But the magistrate denied this request and all the accused will be held at Wynberg court's holding cells.

The accused cannot be named because of the rape charge.

They will return to court on March 18 for a bail application.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ ... g-20160311

http://www.news24.com/Tags/People/franziska_blochliger

The story is gruesome: warning


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Re: Crime on Table Mountain

Post by Flutterby »

Just too awful!! :no: :no:


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