Rise in South African Jewellry Theft

January 28 - An insurance replacement group noted this week that the number of crimes involving jewellry theft has jumped astronomically in South Africa - and it seems that in most cases the police simply have no clue as to the identity of the thieves.

Jewellry Replacement Consultants said that the number of burglaries jumped by over 20% during the last Christmas period and that the group was so inundated with cases that it had to call in for extra backup to help deal with the claims.

"We have been hit with an avalanche of claims," said the Ian Furman, in his role as Managing Director of Jewellry Replacement Consultants. "We had so many, I recalled staff from their vacation to assist."

The reasons for such a jump in crime levels has to do with many factors, including the poor economic conditions in the region, as well as a growing number of foreign aliens who cross the border from Zimbabwe and get caught up in crime syndicates in South Africa.

"It is difficult to say precisely why but the Zimbabwe situation is having a negative impact on crime," noted Furman. "Prosecutors and police officers are telling us that up to 80% of burglaries are perpetrated by Zimbabweans and in many ways, it makes sense. If you had starving children, what would you do?"

Furman noted that criminal elements are exploiting the desperation of foreign Zimbabweans and drawing them into syndicates involved in jewellry theft. "For criminal syndicates it is better for them to use foreign aliens to perpetrate crime because their face cannot be traced on CCTV cameras and because South Africa does not register foreigners, their fingerprints are not on any South African system."

One word of advice by Furman was not to install safes in a home for jewellry. From his experience, victims are badly brutalized by robbers seeking the open the safe. He said that in his own situation, his wife's jewels are kept in a basket next to her bed. "We can replace jewellry; you can't replace a life," he said.