The advertising manager of Grocott’s Mail, Ronel Bowles, was robbed of her purse at Checkers on High Street on the morning of Saturday, 11 July. The purse contained, among other items, about R700, bank cards and her driver’s licence.
The advertising manager of Grocott’s Mail, Ronel Bowles, was robbed of her purse at Checkers on High Street on the morning of Saturday, 11 July. The purse contained, among other items, about R700, bank cards and her driver’s licence.
Bowles was shopping on the ground floor of Checkers in the non-foods department when a young boy bumped into her, causing her to bump into a shelf and fall to the ground. She was holding her purse in her hand at the time. By the time she got up again, she realised that her purse was gone.
She immediately sought out a security guard for help. But when she looked around she saw that all the guards were either stationed at the entrances to the supermrket or were nowhere to be found. ”The guards are not doing their job. They were standing next to the cashiers chatting.”
Bowles says she all in all "the response of the security was shocking” because when she went to the CCTV camera control room, it was locked and no one was around. When the keys were found and the CCTV camera footage checked later, there were no footage of the non-foods area whatsoever. As it turns out, no camera has been installed in the non-foods section which makes this a particularly vulnerable area to robbery.
Bowles found her purse yesterday when it was handed over by Constable Khayalethu Hambaze of the Grahamstown police station. Someone had found the purse and dropped it off at the police station. Hambaze confirmed the incident and said that a memeber of the public handed the purse in at the police station but did not reveal where it was found. All the money and the important papers had been taken but Bowles says, ”I am relieved that the driver’s licence is back!”
