Colour-coded crime

At a recent meeting of the Wavecrest Neighbourhood Watch a document was handed out containing hints to enable residents to identify markers placed by criminals when preparing to break into a house. Below are a few – for what they’re worth.

A red marker placed near a house that is targeted, may be an indication that the criminals are expecting opposition when carrying out a burglary. Be on the lookout for Coke tins. Placed with the open side facing the house, it signifies that there is someone at home. When it is left in an upright position, criminals know that there is no-one at home.

A white plastic bag or sorghum container placed in the vicinity of the target, may mean that the house is considered an easy target.


A sequence of green bottles is often placed in such a way that it shows the criminal the way to his target.

A blue item, e.g. a Clicks shopping bag, placed near a house may indicate there is some-one inside who is prepared to collaborate with the criminal.

A neatly folded yellow Simba chips packet near a house may also have sinister connotations. If the illustration of the lion faces the house, the owner is home. The converse is true if the lion faces away from the residence.

Take care and keep your eyes peeled!

On 8 July 2008 The Star of Johannesburg published the following article:

Domestic Watch co-ordinator Penny Steyn and Inspector Lucky Khumela have identified methods criminals use to get into our homes, and things to be on the lookout for:

• Criminals in organised crime recruit and pay lower level people in the syndicate to get information, such as those who work on a property, eg. carpet and pool cleaners, casual labourers on building sites and garden services or gardeners.

• Signs are left outside properties to inform criminals who commit the crime about the status of the property, and what they can expect when they enter. Watch out for any kind of markers outside the property; they are usually colour-coded with a piece of coloured string, writing on the post box with a Koki pen, a milk, coke, Fanta, lemonade bottle or something similar.

• Criminals sometimes get into a property and wait in the garden for the residents to return before attacking. They choose to wait because it is easier for them to get what they want out of the house. If someone is in the house when they attack, they can get a guided tour to what they want to steal quicker, eg. jewellery, the safe and guns.

• Criminals offer to pay domestics for information and work with the domestics to do crime. They are now targeting domestics by offering R1 000 to leave the gate open. They still tie them up, but this is pre-arranged, and signs are given when it is appropriate to victimise them.

• Criminals pretend to be a relative of the domestic, and get employers to open the gate. They gather information through domestics sitting on the curb of the road during their lunch breaks, and listen to their conversations to get the names of the domestics, then follow them to their properties.

• Criminals get into a property next door and climb over and under fences, remove prefab pieces of a wall, climb trees to jump over electric fences, cut the barbed wire to enter, throw a blanket over barbed wire and disconnect electric fences. If they enter from a next-door property they have less of a chance of being seen entering from the street by a motorist, or another domestic in the suburb.

• Criminals switch taps onto full so that someone will go and investigate, and then attack.

• Criminals pretend to be from the UIF, or something similar, to speak to domestics and make appointments to visit them to gain access.

• Criminals use children to get into a property. They also sometimes get a white person or a woman or child to act as the "front person" to fool the residents or domestics.