It looks like the bad guys are making use of load shedding timetables to target homes who don’t bother to set their alarms, or who might not have a backup battery for the alarm.

When a new crime was posted after load shedding on Friday night, all the neighbours in Camps Bay received an SMS, telling them to read about what had just been published on OurHood.

According to a neighbour:

I saw the report on OurHood. The burglars struck on Friday evening, during the load shedding time. All the lights were off, and so were a lot of people’s alarms. A house that backs onto the mountain in Camps Bay was unoccupied while the owners went out to dinner. The robbers gained access to the property through a flimsy fence and smashed a window to get into the house. No alarm went off because of load-shedding, and they stole the usual items.

Local community policing initiative, Camps Bay Watch advises:

Please ensure that you have checked your Alarm’s back up battery, it must be able to last at least for two and a half hours and be operable during and after load shedding. Ideally your Alarm battery should be able to last for 12-24 hours without power. As suggested before please consider buying a UPS if your alarm system is not equipped to handle load shedding.

Due to good community policing and communication, Camps Bay was ranked one of the safest neighbourhoods in South Africa.

OurHood, the fastest growing social network for neighborhoods in South Africa, allows users to interact with one another individually or within groups. Whilst neighbourhood events can be posted and neighbours can post notices about lost dogs or nanny services, the ‘Crime’ section automatically sends an SMS to the whole neighbourhood when someone posts a new crime alert.

The advantages of OurHood over Whatsapp and Facebook is OurHood users need to be verified before they can join a neighbourhood, usually by way of utility bill. Conversations are broken up into useful categories and you only get notified about things you choose.

WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO:

Users can signup at ourhood.co.za and access their neighbourhood through their desktop computer or mobile phone. The mobile website operates like an app. OurHood is launching the iOS and Android apps by March this year.

Learn more about OurHood here.