Online news site eTNW recently conducted a survey, asking readers whether or not they or their clients had been involved in any ‘follow home’ crime from OR Tambo International Airport.
Inbound business operators made up 68% of participants in the survey and 32% were outbound. Of these participants, 30% said either they or their clients had experienced incidents of ‘follow home’ crime from the airport, and 70% reported no.
Of the 30% who said they had experienced ‘follow home’ crime, 45.5% had experienced only one incident and 45.5% said they had experienced between two and five crime incidents. The remaining 9% said they had experienced at least six or more incidents.
Those who were victims of the crimes were mainly South African and African; second were European nationals and Asians, followed by North American nationals and nationals classified as ‘other’.
The majority of the most recent incidents were reported within the last six months; 36.4% took place in the last month, while another 36.4% took place within the last six months; 18.2% took place within six months to a year and 9% occurred more than a year ago.
The response by authorities to the crime ranked relatively low, with 10% saying that the authorities responded very well, 50% said the response was average, 20% said below average and 20% said poor.
One respondent said that, to date, the authorities had yet to take statements from two of the four victims who were involved in a ‘follow home’ incident. Another participant said that no investigation whatsoever had been conducted.
One participant said the authorities had been called to a hotel where questions had been asked, but no one had contacted them since. Another participant said there had been an attempted hijacking in their driveway, however fortunately their security saw the threat and closed the gate behind their guests as they entered the premises. They said armed response and the police had responded within minutes.
