Carlo Petersen
SHOPS in the city came under attack again this weekend with five incidents of armed robberies reported in and around Cape Town.
Yesterday, police confirmed weekend robberies at Cape Gate shopping mall in Brackenfell, Life Style Centre in Cape Town, Checkers in Meadowridge and an electronic store in Montague Gardens.
CCTV footage of a robbery which took place at Silvertree Superstore on Friday went viral on social networks yesterday. In the footage two of the robbers can be seen wandering about the shop while customers make purchases.
After a group of customers leave, the suspects produce weapons and order the remaining customers to lie on the floor
Two more suspects enter the store and one of the men jumps over the counter to accost the cashier.
Three customers, including the cashier, are physically beaten and kicked before the suspects leave.
A shopkeeper, who did not want to be named, said an undisclosed amount of money was taken from the tills, and a few random items.
“The customers were also robbed of their cellphones,” he said.
Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer refused to comment on the police’s struggle to curb the spate of armed robberies hitting the province. Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana confirmed the other incidents yesterday.
“An armed robbery took place this morning (Sunday) at about 8am at the Cape Gate shopping mall in Brackenfell. According to reports, three armed suspects entered the shop and demanded an undisclosed amount of cash and then fled.
“Then at about 8:30am at the Life Style Centre in Cape Town, two armed suspects are alleged to have entered the office and took an undisclosed amount of cash from the safe before fleeing the scene,” he said, adding that no arrests had been made.
Armed robbers also held-up staff at an electronics service centre in Montague Gardens on Saturday morning.
Kinana said four armed men overpowered staff, forced them into a back room and tied them up.
They loaded computer equipment into two vehicles belonging to staff members and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
On Friday night, two armed men held up a Checkers store in Meadowridge and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash in a white Toyota Corolla.
These robberies are the latest in a string of armed attacks at malls, cellphone shops, jewellery stores and other retail businesses in the province.
Mall robbers have targeted Canal Walk, Tyger Valley Centre, Zewenwacht Mall, Longbeach Centre, Blue Route Mall and Cape Gate.