Police have urged city businesses to boost their security following last weekend's payday heist and shootout on Grahamstown streets.
Warning of increased aggression as armed robbers take advantage of lax security, Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Milanda Coetzer recounted recent armed robberies.
Police have urged city businesses to boost their security following last weekend's payday heist and shootout on Grahamstown streets.
Warning of increased aggression as armed robbers take advantage of lax security, Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Milanda Coetzer recounted recent armed robberies.
Coetzer listed four armed robberies this year in an email to Grocott's Mail. Fishaways had been targeted twice in two years, once in 2012 and once this year.
The post office robbed in broad day light in the first half of 2014. She said shots were fired during a robbery at Nyama Rama meat shop this year. Criminals also robbed the Spur, she said.
"These robberies are a concern not only due to the fact that these suspects are armed with firearms," she said.
"It may become more likely that injuries will follow due to the aggression often shown by these suspects."
She said last week's robbery at the building site and the way shots were fired at Hi-Tec reflected the aggressive nature of such incidents.
Police have urged the public to be on the lookout for the white Mercedes Benz robbers used as a getaway vehicle after the shoot-out in Joza on Friday 31 October. 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. The police believe the robbers may have abandoned the vehicle after officers from Hi-Tec Security confronted them in Extension 4.
The shoot-out followed a wage heist in the city centre. 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, 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 shoot-out, 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.
Hi-Tec’s Kenny Knoetze said, “A Hi-Tec vehicle was [left]with six bullet holes, but luckily no one was injured." Knoetze said the Hi-Tec team managed to retrieve some of the money that fell during the shoot-out.
“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 said police remain in close contact with the community in an attempt to create awareness of robberies and measures to prevent them."
The very healthy working relationships between the SAPS and local security companies, specifically Hi-Tec security, has led to the recovery of robbed property and stolen vehicles relating to robberies in the year," she said. Police have invited the business community to contact their security providers and/or the police, who can give them suggestions on how to change routine procedures in which large amounts of money are handled.
"This should lead to the possible upgrade and/or improvement of security measures at these outlets," Coetzer said Police request anyone with information to contact Lieutenant Mzwandile Maleki at 082 3199 255.
Coetzer said police have noticed a drop in some types of crime.
"The number of instances where Spaza shops have been victims of robberies have decreased again due to a working relationship between the SAPS and owners of these shops in closing the shops earlier at night in order to decrease the possibility of robberies," she said.
