Johannesburg - The theft from a Turkish Airlines flight crew in Sandton, Joburg, is the latest in a spike of airport follow-home robberies in the past two weeks.
On Monday, the airline crew was robbed of valuables and cash while they were in a shuttle bus in Sandton. The shuttle had been stopped at a robot when the crime happened.
Other follow-home robberies also occurred this week. Two, according to Yusuf Abramjee, anti-crime activist and vice-president of Crime Stoppers International, happened on Thursday night.
“In one of the incidents in Robertsham, the victim was shot in the arm. The other incident happened close to the Mall of Africa,” he said.
The week before, a foreign national was held up at a guest house in Kempton Park, Abramjee added. He said he knew of four incidents in the past two weeks.
“There was a lull for a little while, but suddenly we have this upsurge.”
But the authorities did have some recent success with the airport follow-home robberies.
Last weekend, four suspects were arrested in Hillbrow on suspicion of being involved in follow-home robberies. The incident they were allegedly involved in happened on January 8, at 11pm.
Members of the National Investigation Unit, working with Parkview detectives, followed up on information about one of the suspects.
The suspects arrested were aged between 25 and 45, and were picked up from various residences in Hillbrow. The task team recovered a .38 Special revolver with ammunition. They also found suspected stolen property including a passport, suitcases, clothing and a Lenovo Notebook.
Police suspect that they might have been involved in other cases.
But what concerns Abramjee is that new criminal gangs are taking up this lucrative criminal activity, that has minimal risk.
The move to follow-home robberies has, he believes, been caused perhaps by the recent police crackdown on cash in transit heists.
“There are several gangs and they are dangerous.
“This is their speciality, they follow passengers from OR Tambo International Airport and rob them along the way to their destinations.
“They are brazen and heavily armed. They choose their targets from the airport,” he said.
The police said a multi-disciplinary team would continue to work on combating robberies of this kind.
Abramjee said one of the concerns of recent crimes is the implications this would have for tourism in South Africa. The Turkish Airlines incident had made the media in Turkey.
“When you get pilots and airline crews being attacked, you have an even bigger problem.”