Local estate agent Gregg Rippon was hijacked at gunpoint yesterday morning near the BP service station in African Street by three men who had just attempted an armed robbery of a Cash Solutions van that was delivering money to the ATM at the station.
Local estate agent Gregg Rippon was hijacked at gunpoint yesterday morning near the BP service station in African Street by three men who had just attempted an armed robbery of a Cash Solutions van that was delivering money to the ATM at the station.
The driver of the Cash Solutions van, Ayanda Mtshelu, said one of the suspects came running out of the KwikSpar and shot Cash Solutions guard Cornelius van der Merwe just outside the petrol cashier point, before making off with a money box.
The suspects were forced to abandon the box a few steps up Milner Street after the Cash Solutions van gave chase. Van der Merwe sustained a gunshot wound to his left arm and was taken away in an ambulance. “It all happened too fast. I saw the guy coming from the ATM and then I heard the gunshot. I don’t know what happened in between,” said Florence Smile, a cashier at BP.
The suspects then hijacked Rippon, forcibly removing him from his vehicle while holding a gun to his head. “They took my double-cab and I called Hi-Tec immediately after they drove off,” said Rippon. Hi-Tec located the vehicle a short while later, abandoned near Mary Waters High School. Kenny Knoetze, a Hi-Tec security officer, said that no one in the area had said anything about seeing the vehicle or the suspects.
The incident happened around 10am yesterday. A CCTV security camera at the KwikSpar captured footage of the incident. Police spokesperson Mali Govender told Grocott’s Mail shortly after the incident that the suspects had not yet been found and that a case of armed robbery and hijacking had been opened and investigations were under way.
