Cape Town danger areas

[Thomo]

9 hours ago, mikkelz said:

Zwift seems pretty cheap in comparison to this bullsh*t. 🤬

I was keen to ride this morning and then all of this ... so I guess it's a little IDT session this morning. ☹

[DJR]

This is a really ****** up world

[splat]

14 hours ago, Murrob said:

As received on WhatsApp groups, Franschoek pass has had 2 kidnapping incidents in the last 24-72 hours. 
 

1st incident 

‘Franschhoek pas, taxi met drie swart gewapende mans het my 17:20 van my fiets af gestamp, fiets berg af gegooi, my in die taxi gegooi , en hulle het eers R100 000 gesoek, hulle het tot in Grabouw gery met my , my in die veld gevat, hulle het op die ou einde 50k uit my uit nadat ek rond en bond probeer geld secure, ek ht niks meer gehad, hulle het my GOD dank vry gelaat by BP garage in Grabouw 20:15 , unharmed. ek het immediate transfer gedoen, hulle stel nie belang aan fietse of goed, hulle soek Geld, en baie, hulle is kwaai en gee nie om of jy nie geld het nie, hulle my met geweer gedreig. belowe ek sal fine wees as hulle geld kry. dink hulle is locals by Grabouw maar hulle is van ZIM af, nie SA’

2nd was last night

‘Please take care, my daughter and her friend were hijacked/ kidnapped last night on Franschoek pass. The kidnappers wanted a ransom. They are safe now and not hurt. Not safe to stop there any more’

Confirmed on bikes as well.

Not sure if anyone else has info, same mo by the sounds of it. At first I was not convinced cyclists are being targeted specifically, but now I am not so sure. Seems too much of coincidence that repeat incident in such a short space of time on the same pass. Same perpetrators? 

So, modern banking is online with all your accounts connected - Bond, Check, Credit, Savings and in my case, my business account. it would be scary if someone got hold of my phone and cleared that all out. So, a cheap non-smart phone may be a good idea for cycling.

But taking you to the ATM at gun point would circumvent the phone story. So, one would need to have transfer and payment limits on your accounts. But these limits may be a problem for day to  day functioning.

Demanding a ransom circumvents that story too.
What a sh!t show! 

[ChrisF]

53 minutes ago, splat said:

So, modern banking is online with all your accounts connected - Bond, Check, Credit, Savings and in my case, my business account. it would be scary if someone got hold of my phone and cleared that all out. So, a cheap non-smart phone may be a good idea for cycling.

But taking you to the ATM at gun point would circumvent the phone story. So, one would need to have transfer and payment limits on your accounts. But these limits may be a problem for day to  day functioning.

Demanding a ransom circumvents that story too.
What a sh!t show! 

 

I cycle with an old pre-paid phone .... NO banking stuff on this phone.

 

NO bank cards on my.

 

Garmin pay on the watch ... limited exposure

 

R200 note in the phone cover for emergencies.

 

 

 

Short of going full movie style randsom they are in for a bad day in the office.

 

 

Might just rename the wifes number ..... why make it easy for these @55h0les ....

[BaGearA]

58 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

I cycle with an old pre-paid phone .... NO banking stuff on this phone.

 

NO bank cards on my.

 

Garmin pay on the watch ... limited exposure

 

R200 note in the phone cover for emergencies.

 

 

 

Short of going full movie style randsom they are in for a bad day in the office.

 

 

Might just rename the wifes number ..... why make it easy for these @55h0les ....

I have a phone setup like this cause this crap has been happening for a while now and I got scared but now I find myself not riding with it. 

 

I have basically completely stopped riding outside of parks, main phones stays in the car and I have some cash on me.

 

Sad sad time to be here 

[LazyTrailRider]

17 hours ago, splat said:

A mugging in Tokai on the way up to the mast this morning @ about 10:00.
3 x knife wielding youths. Phone and Garmin taken, but not the bike.

These are the bits of info that I have gathered so far...

Anyone have any more info about this?

[Murrob]

Yeah, gotta say, this needs quick and proper intervention by the authorities, which seems unlikely. If this idea takes hold for wannabe and proper criminals that anyone exercising/cycling outside is a good target for a quick 50-100k ransom. Then it’s going to a huge issue. The discussion with bike jacking is to just handover and comply and let insurance deal with it. This is another ball game, I’m not sure pleading poverty with an 80k+ bike and your dumb phone is going to save you. So it’s either only cycle outside is groups, or armed…because once you are in that van there is precious little that is going to stop it. This scares me much more than the prospect of an armed hijacking and losing a bike.

[Andreas_187]

6 hours ago, DJR said:

This is a really ****** up world

This is a really****** up country.

Fixed it for you

[gkp]

5 hours ago, LazyTrailRider said:

Anyone have any more info about this?

We rode up to the mast around 09h00 - on the way down, we encountered the "muggee" - who had also been going to the mast. It seems 3 BMs jumped him on the steep part past the turnoff to the Bridle Path (so we assume the muggers watched us go past but figured too many of us to tackle - we were 5). The muggers had knives, so relieved the rider of his garmin, vario, and phone. They also slashed his tyres, so he had a long walk back. 

He seemed not to be injured, other than a couple of grazes where he had fallen off his bike, trying to turn and run, but was clearly in shock. We think SANparks went and collected him - we saw them on the way down and informed them, but they weren't all that hurried......

I believe mates in Tokai sorted him getting home.

We thought that the mugging site, which was a hotspot a few years ago, had become safe, but I guess it's back to group ascents of the mast for a while.

[olmec]

24 minutes ago, gkp said:

steep part past the turnoff to the Bridle Path

Would you mind marking this on the map please? I'm not sure where Bridle path is?

[milky4130]

15 minutes ago, olmec said:

Would you mind marking this on the map please? I'm not sure where Bridle path is?

 

[mikkelz]

7 hours ago, Murrob said:

Yeah, gotta say, this needs quick and proper intervention by the authorities, which seems unlikely. 

Are they even aware of it? Are you going to contact “them”?

I emailed everyone I could think of re: Helshoogte (many emails went unanswered), but when I did eventually get a reply, it didn't seem as if there was much awareness to the situation.

Are the police even involved in these most recent kidnapping attempts? Why is there no news about it.

Unfortunately so much of what is discussed here remains in a tiny bubble. We've got to keep making a noise about this and not on here only.

[McD23]

1 hour ago, milky4130 said:

They didn't use the bridle path, if that's the one that goes down to constantia

They came of the mountain Hout Bay side and down into Donke Yatse in IY. They were observed and one identified. HBay Saps was actively trying to locate him today.

San parks is aware and is allocating resource with Saps for weekend operations. They were actually doing a combined operation at the time of the mugging. Reality is unless you have a drone, finding 3 guys on the mountain side with a few people committed to the cause is not easy.

The perps have the advantage of sitting and observing from vantage points often and then moving accordingly to avoid the resources trying to locate them.

[gkp]

Agreed - apparently, they legged it down to HB. Glad to hear they were identified - Deon was busy with SAPS and SanParks when we contacted him. But, if you go to the area - it's a mugger's paradise - lots of cover, a good few escape routes, slow cyclists (going uphill), and you do have the advantage of checking things out both up and down-hill.

[Murrob]

Well, I would assume and hope the victims have now involved police.  I was passing on the messages in the Paarl cycling groups that I belong to as received. I have also posed the question previously on this very thread when Helshoogte started kicking off again, as to your point, and I ask again, where are PPA and CSA in all of this? How can we get them to lobby on our behalf as cyclists to get this the attention from the powers that be to get some kind of action going. Does anyone have contacts? 

I did, as an aside, drive up to the top of Franschoek pass this afternoon and noted what looked like a CPF member parked off to the side about half way up keeping an eye out and there a couple of police vehicle on main road hopefully patrolling and heading up the pass.

33 minutes ago, mikkelz said:

Are they even aware of it? Are you going to contact “them”?

I emailed everyone I could think of re: Helshoogte (many emails went unanswered), but when I did eventually get a reply, it didn't seem as if there was much awareness to the situation.

Are the police even involved in these most recent kidnapping attempts? Why is there no news about it.

Unfortunately so much of what is discussed here remains in a tiny bubble. We've got to keep making a noise about this and not on here only.

 

[milky4130]

33 minutes ago, McD23 said:

They didn't use the bridle path, if that's the one that goes down to constantia

They came of the mountain Hout Bay side and down into Donke Yatse in IY. They were observed and one identified. HBay Saps was actively trying to locate him today.

San parks is aware and is allocating resource with Saps for weekend operations. They were actually doing a combined operation at the time of the mugging. Reality is unless you have a drone, finding 3 guys on the mountain side with a few people committed to the cause is not easy.

The perps have the advantage of sitting and observing from vantage points often and then moving accordingly to avoid the resources trying to locate them.

I was only pointing out to olmec where the bridal pass is since he asked