Man robbed after withdrawing R130 000

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Durban - A Pinetown businessman was pursued by robbers in a dramatic car chase on Monday, forced to stop and robbed of R130 000 at gunpoint minutes after withdrawing the cash inside a bank.

The man, who asked not be named, had gone to Nedbank’s Payne Street Branch in Pinetown to make the withdrawal for his company and said he had done so without suspecting anything was amiss.

He left the bank, climbed into his car and drove to work. But he noticed a white car in his rear-view mirror and suspected that he was being followed. He wanted to make sure and decided to take a different route.

“My suspicions were true because the car kept following me. Every turn I took, the white car was there behind me,” he said. “I really did not know how to react.”

The man kept driving until he reached Jellico Road in Farningham Ridge, where he tried to accelerate away from the following car.

Out of nowhere, another car drove in front of him forcing him to make an emergency stop. The man then tried to reverse but the car following him, drove behind and blocked him in.

“At that point, I thought I was going to die. I did not know what to do,” he said.

Three armed men took the cash, his cellphone and car keys before assaulting him and pushing him into the street. He ran away and asked to use the phone at a nearby house, where he contacted the police.

Lieutenant Bongumusa Manqele, a Pinetown police spokesman, confirmed the incident and said no arrests had been made.

The man

believed someone inside the bank watched him make the withdrawal. He asked the bank if he could see its CCTV footage, but Nedbank declined.

Vicel Moshapo, from the bank’s security and safety services, said it was against policy to share CCTV footage with clients

. However, “this matter will be investigated through the bank’s internal and external processes“ and it would be working with police to bring the perpetrators to book.

The Mercury