A swift response by a private security company led the arrest of one of three men who used a toy firearm to rob an Extension 10 spaza shop in the lead-up to last weekend.
A swift response by a private security company led the arrest of one of three men who used a toy firearm to rob an Extension 10 spaza shop in the lead-up to last weekend.
The victim, who cannot be named for her safety, was alone at the shop when two men entered and greeted her around 2.45pm on Thursday 12 January, she told Grocott’s Mail.
The spaza shop door was closed while she spoke to the men and when someone opened it, she ignored it, thinking it was her mother or her young daughter.
Feeling something against her neck, she turned around to see a man with a gun.
“He didn’t say anything to me but only put the firearm on my neck. I pushed him away and started fighting him,” the woman said.
“My daughter was inside the shop while we were fighting and she called my mother and told her there was a thug inside the shop.
“My mother was in the bathroom at that time and she came out and saw what was happening. She shouted for help from the neighbours.”
The two others men outside the shop then ran away.
“I managed to overpower the one I was fighting with and the gun was left on my side. He went to the till and took R500 that was there and my cellphone and ran away,” said the woman.
She said she pressed the Hi-Tec security panic button. Almost immediately the guards were there, she said, and she told them the direction in which the men had run.
The security officers caught the man who had struggled with the victim and recovered the cellphone, but not the money.
“He started telling the security officers that he had bought the cellphone from somebody in Extension 10,” the woman said.
He denied robbing the shop, or any knowledge of the accomplices.
Eventually, the spaza shop owner said, the suspect told them the truth – but when they went with the police to the homes of the other two, they were nowhere to be found.
The alleged robber had a black bucket hat and a grey jersey.
“When the security officers caught him running, he was holding the jersey and the bucket hat in his hand. Apparently he didn’t want be recognised,” she said.
“After the robbery I quickly called my husband and asked him to call my cellphone,” she said. “Fortunately that was the time the security officers had caught him and he didn’t answer the cellphone,” said the victim.
She said the incident had left her five-year-old daughter traumatised.
“Now every time people talk about that incident, she cries.”
She herself no longer feels safe.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed that a case of armed robbery had been opened and that two other suspects were still at large.
“Police and a security company responded and one male was arrested,” Govender said. “A toy firearm, two cellphones and a knife were recovered from the suspect.”
