{"id":201243,"date":"2019-04-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/201243\/red-cross-suffers-setback-following-break-in\/"},"modified":"2019-04-10T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T12:38:44","slug":"red-cross-suffers-setback-following-break-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/news-headlines\/2019\/04\/10\/red-cross-suffers-setback-following-break-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Cross suffers setback following break-in"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South African Red Cross Society is a non-profit organisation which renders services to the most vulnerable of communities.<\/p>\n

However, the Germiston branch of the Red Cross Society has had a major setback in their relief efforts following a business robbery last weekend.<\/p>

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\u201cAfter a successful fund-raiser last Saturday we closed and locked our offices for the evening,\u201d explained Germiston Red Cross manager Barbara Jensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing was out of place, the alarm was on and everything was fine.\u201d<\/p>

<\/div>\n

Sadly this was not the case last Sunday morning when the offices were opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur financial team came in early to work on our year-end financials and discovered we\u2019d been robbed,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey immediately called me and I came straight to the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jensen further explained that she had received a notification that the organisation\u2019s alarm had gone off a few minutes after midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get an SMS notification when the alarm is triggered, but I only saw the message in the morning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The team, while assessing the extensive damage caused in the robbery, checked the CCTV footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the footage, before the camera was ripped off the wall, you could see the perpetrators using a grinder to grind through a security gate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew exactly what they were doing and exactly where they were going,\u201d said Jensen.<\/p>\n

The criminals gained entry to the property through the roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe they lay in the roof till our security company\u2019s response team had left, as they did come to the scene when the alarm was tripped,\u201d explained Jensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey left when they couldn\u2019t find anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat also makes me believe they hid in the roof is that on the camera footage they only begin \u2018working\u2019 at around 2am, when the alarm was tripped just after midnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The thieves made off with an undisclosed amount of money, two laptops, an external hard drive and other smaller items.<\/p>\n

They also damaged the organisation\u2019s phones and destroyed the alarm system and safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the banks were closed when we finished last Saturday\u2019s fund-raiser we hadn\u2019t had a chance to bank the money and it was in the safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally we would never have large amounts of money on site,\u201d explained Jensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of the money we worked so hard to raise we lost a large amount of data, which was on the laptops and external hard drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we can replace the hard drive and laptops but not all the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The robbery is a massive blow for the Germiston Red Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unbelievable,\u201d said Jensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe survive from minute to minute relying on fund-raising to help us provide many of the services we deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really has been a terrible blow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel violated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Germiston SAPS confirmed they are investigating a case of business break-in, but no arrests have been made to date.<\/p>\n

For now all the Red Cross can do is try and pick up the pieces and carry on with their day-to-day activities.<\/p>\n

If you would like to assist with a donation to help the organisation get back on its feet call Jensen on 011 873 9009.<\/p>\n