Johannesburg - A spate of armed robberies has left two people dead, a police officer critically wounded and a shop poorer of R1 million in cellphones – all within 24 hours.
Early on Friday morning, five armed men held a security guard at gunpoint at a chemical plant in Leondale, Ekurhuleni, triggering an alarm as they broke in.
A deadly shoot-out ensued as other security guards tried to stop them.
Security guards on patrol heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene, only for one of them to be shot.
“One of the security guards was killed,” Gauteng police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said.
“One suspect was arrested and police recovered two cellphones, as well as an unlicensed firearm at the scene,” Mogale said.
Late Thursday afternoon, a group of six to eight men stormed a cellphone shop in a mall in Honeydew, in the north-west of Joburg,
The gang held staff members at gunpoint and made off with cellphones worth more than R1 million.
Like the Leondale gang, they had arrived in a BMW, but had an extra getaway car – a Nissan Duke.
Mogale could not confirm the name of the mall or the store, but it was speculated on social media to be Northgate Mall, with some Twitter users putting the robbery down to “an inside job”.
Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman confirmed to The Star that the robbery had taken place at their store inside the Northgate Mall.
He said that handsets had been stolen, but he was unable to confirm the value of the items.
Counselling would be arranged for the staff members who had been in the shop at the time of the robbery, he added.
While no shots were fired during that robbery and no one was injured, it was a different scenario in Mondeor, in the south of Joburg, where a gang gunned down a pensioner.
The 65-year-old man fell victim to the gunmen who had just robbed a liquor store, and was killed for his wallet.
In broad daylight, a nine-member gang stormed the liquor outlet, robbing it of an undisclosed amount of cash, liquor and cigarettes, Mogale said.
“As they fled the scene, they came across the pensioner whom they wanted to rob of his wallet. He resisted and the suspects fatally shot him.
“The suspects fled the scene in a red VW Golf GTI and white Ford Ranger,” Mogale pointed out.
Also keeping police on their toes were four men who attempted to hijack a car on the corner of Albertina Sisulu Street and Marshall Road in Kensington, in the east of Joburg.
The botched hijacking resulted in a high-speed chase with Joburg metro police officers, which ended when the gang’s silver Audi A4 veered out of control and crashed into a pole.
One of the men was arrested, and the police recovered an unlicensed firearm in his possession.
Three of the men are still at large and on Friday morning police launched a massive manhunt for them and those who were involved in the Leondale, Mondeor and Honeydew crimes.
“Further investigations showed that the Audi A4 that the suspects were travelling in, had been reported stolen in Florida,” Mogale said.
The Star