The Laudium Sun is once again appealing to prospective employers to be alert when employing workers for domestic purposes within their households, given the continuous high rate of crime that has directly resulted from families allowing strangers into their homes.
A Wespark resident has learned a hard and very expensive lesson, after she was robbed by a casual domestic worker last Friday (June 8).
Orlene Pillay told the Laudium Sun that her usual domestic worker had been ill that day and she desperately needed someone to help her out for a few days.
Orlene said she was standing outside her house when she spotted a woman knocking at her neighbour's door, asking for work.
"After my neighbour told her they had no work for her, she came around to my house," Orlene said, adding,
"She looked so good-natured and was desperate for work, and I thought my prayer was answered, in that I had found someone so quickly."
Orlene explained to the young woman that she could offer her a part-time position, just until her own domestic worker returned, and she said that the woman was only too pleased to accept.
"She told me her name was Patricia and that she was from Boksburg. She also told me that she was staying on Coke Street while she was here in Wespark," the unsuspecting victim recalled.
Orlene asked Patricia to start the following morning, but Patricia keenly volunteered to start immediately. After explaining the household chores, the new domestic worker earnestly began her duties - one of which was to pack the previous day's washing into her bedroom cupboard.
The trusting housewife did not mind that Patricia opened the cupboards - where she also kept valuables such as her personal jewellery, and also some cash, because she said that Patricia had an honest face, and this duty was also always handled by her full-time domestic worker, who was now on sick leave.
Orlene recalled that, after an hour, Patricia asked her to open the front security gate, as she wanted to dust the outside of the door and house. Surprisingly, Orlene told the Laudium Sun, she did not suspect any foul play at all and instead thought how wonderful and proactive the domestic worker actually was.
"I opened the gate for her and went back into the house, as I had visitors from Centurion to see to," she said.
A little later, when Orlene went outside to check, the domestic worker was not there. "I called for Patricia, thinking she was still around in the yard somewhere…but there was no reply," she said.
The housewife’s sixth sense immediately kicked in and she rushed straight to her bedroom cupboard to check if any of her valuables were missing.
When she looked in her drawer, she found her jewellery box empty and her purse, which had been hidden at the back of a shelf that contained some cash, also empty.
Orlene exclaimed that the domestic worker was smart enough to have only taken the pure gold jewellery, leaving the imitations in the cupboard.
The despondent homemaker said she asked her neighbour's domestic worker if she had seen where or in what direction Patricia went and was told that Patricia was seen running out of the gate.
Fortunately, as Orlene was waiting outside the gate, a police van passed and she quickly stopped the cops. The police drove around Wespark, but Patricia was nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, Orlene did not manage to take any of Patricia's details down.
Pretoria West Cluster spokesperson, Captain Agnes Huma has once more appealed to the community not to employ just anyone, no matter how innocent they seem, until all their personal information is solicited and verified by the police.
"We have made many appeals and even offered to do security checks on prospective domestic staff, but, for some reason, the community continues to hire domestics and gardeners without verifying their credentials. I once more appeal to the community not to employ people off the street," she added.
Hoodwinked…Orlene Pillay lost all her gold jewellery to a fly-by-night domestic worker.
The Rod Street, Wespark house, that was targeted by a thieving domestic worker.