Police have urged the public to be on the lookout for the white Mercedes Benz robbers used as a getaway vehicle after a shootout in Joza on Friday 31 October.
Police have urged the public to be on the lookout for the white Mercedes Benz robbers used as a getaway vehicle after a shootout in Joza on Friday 31 October.
The police believe the robbers may have abandoned the vehicle after officers from Hi-Tec security company confronted them in Extension 4, Grahamstown police said Tuesday 4 November.
The shootout followed a wage heist in the city centre. Crime Intelligence Officer Milanda Coetzer said that the vehicle might offer new leads in the investigation.
"It was shot several times by Hi-Tec's armed response team. By now it should be abandoned and we urge the public to be on the look out for it because it is a very important piece in the chain of evidence," Coetzer said.
The white Mercedes Benz FBY229EC was left riddled with bullets by the armed response unit after they spotted it, minutes after a wage heist behind the African Street Spar.
A 62-year-old man was assaulted before being robbed of the wages he had brought to pay construction workers on the Holland Street building site.
Coetzer said in a media statement shortly after the incident that soon after the man and his companion arrived in Holland Street with the wages, two men with hand guns confronted them.
They assaulted one and fled with the bags of cash, Coetzer said.
“They sped away in a white Mercedes-Benz which had been parked around the corner and drove away in the general direction of the CBD,” she said.
Minutes after the alarm was raised, Grahamstown security company Hi-Tec identified the vehicle in Sani Street, Joza.
“The Hi-Tec armed response staff followed the vehicle to Extension 4, where a shoot-out occurred after the suspects initiated an attack on the armed response members,” Coetzer said.
“Several shots were fired and the Hi-Tec vehicle, as well as the walls of the surrounding residential homes, were damaged.”
During the shootout, some of the wage envelopes fell from the Mercedes and were left strewn across the road. No injuries were reported, Coetzer said.
The car turned around in a side street and left. Hi -Tec’s vehicle had been incapacitated, however, and they were forced to watch the getaway car as it disappeared.
“Our patrol car spotted the vehicle in the Joza area and a shootout ensued when they saw our men coming for them,” Hi-Tec’s Kenny Knoetze said.
“A Hi-Tec vehicle was [left]with six bullet holes, but luckily no one was injured,” he said. Knoetze said the Hi-Tec team managed to retrieve some of the money that fell during the shootout.
“There were four men in total in the car. They used an automatic rifle and two handguns and we don’t think they are from around Grahamstown,” Knoetze said.
Coetzer earlier urged members of the public not to approach the white Mercedes Benz FBY229EC, or its occupants, as they were armed and dangerous.
“They will not hesitate to use deadly force if they feel threatened,” she said. The police request anyone with information to contact Lieutenant Mzwandile Maleki at 082 3199 255.
