Johannesburg - For the second time in just less than a week,the Mall of the South has been hit by an armed robbery.
On Monday, armed men stormed into a cellphone store in the newly built mall near Mondeor and made off with goods valued at around R600 000.
The incident, at the Vodacom 4U store, happened just after it opened its doors around 9am, according to mall spokesman Waldo Marcus.
He said two smartly dressed men entered the store and held staff at gunpoint while ordering other employees to pack sealed cellphones into a bag.
“The two carried the bag from the store and down the escalators while two (others) kept watch outside the store,” Marcus said.
The assailants then fled the scene in a black BMW waiting for them on Klipriver Drive outside the mall. Police spokeswoman Constable Sibongile Nguni confirmed the armed robbery and said no arrests had been made.
She said no one was injured during the robbery and that no customers were in the store at the time.
On Tuesday last week, a man fired a warning shot into the air at the premises after a group of robbers tried to steal his vehicle.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the victim had parked his Toyota Tazz on the upper level of the mall's parking lot that night. When he returned about two hours later, he found his vehicle's light on.
“He found a man at the driver's side of his vehicle, trying to start it. He fought with the suspect as he tried to remove him from his vehicle.
“There was another green Toyota Tazz parked next to his vehicle, and three men climbed out of it and started assaulting the complainant with a hammer and fists,” said Dlamini.
Amid the chaos, the man in his car managed to start it and drive to the exit.
“The complainant ran after the suspects and fired a warning shot,” Dlamini said.
Two men, aged between 40 and 42, were arrested at the time and have since appeared in court.
Earlier this month, three staff members from Steers and Debonairs Pizza were robbed at gunpoint on their way to a storeroom via a back passage.
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The Star