Rook Cycles, a well-known bicycle shop on Long Street, shared CCTV footage on social media of the store being looted in the early hours of Monday morning after the annual City of Cape Town festive lights switch-on.
The footage captured shows multiple assailants clambering through the broken window-front of the store and grabbing various items before fleeing the scene. Two bicycles as well as bags and other articles can be seen being stolen.
A recorded timestamp in the corner of the video indicates the crime took place at around 5am on Monday.
Rook Cycles shared its grievances with the City’s management of safety and security in a social media post.
“We’re so optimistic about South Africa. We’ve had opportunities to open elsewhere, but we’ve always stayed firm that this is where we need to be. It’s just too bad [that] amongst all the great people we have here, there’s a bunch of worthless oxygen thieves that ruin it for the good folks out there. We’ll remain optimistic and we’ll rebuild. Thanks for all the support. Oh, and thanks Cape Town City for the heads up on the 10s of thousands of drunk / drugged idiots you invited to your ‘turning on the lights’ festival,” said Rook Cycles in post.
The festival was attended by an estimated 39 000 people and took place at Grand Parade in the CBD.
Locals took to twitter to share their criticisms of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) for failing to prevent the robbery that took place at Rook Cycles.
The CCID explained that several suspects in the incident were arrested and four bicycles were successfully recovered.
“Due to the high volumes of people attending the Festival of Lights Switch-On, all agencies were overwhelmed. In this case, the CCID were the first respondents and managed to arrest 6 suspects and recover 4 bicycles,” said the CCID.
Just watched the looting chaos video of @rookcycles in Long Street.
What the actual.
I’m so sorry crew. All your gear!
Where the hell were the @CapeTownCCID and how does that even happen @alanwinde— Kirsten Wilkins (@contestedspaces) December 3, 2018
Picture: Rook Cycles/ Facebook
