Every single day violent and heavily armed robbers attack at least two cash-in-transit vehicles and their crew in South Africa, fleecing the country of millions of rands.
South Africa has the dubious title of being the country which has the most violent heists with at least half of the attacks ending either in fatalities or serious injuries.
The most recent was on Friday morning on the N1 south-bound near Grasmere.
Although cash-in-transit robberies have decreased by nearly 50 percent, robbers are becoming more and more violent with attackers going to extreme lengths to lay their hands on the money.
Starting in the early 90s with South Africa's most famous heist mastermind, Collin Chauke, cash-in-transit robberies have now developed into extremely violent and bloody crimes.
Chauke, who died in 2003, was arrested for his role in the R12,6-million SBV robbery in Pretoria and sentenced to 18 years in C-Max prison.
He was also held for his role in the R17-million Bronkhorstspruit heist in which six people were killed, but he was later acquitted.
The Bronkhorstspruit heist was based on the movie Heat where robbers used steel spikes laid across roads to attack cash-in-transit vans.
Cash-in-transit gangs, which strike mostly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, have now turned their crimes into high-tech operations with groups purchasing high-powered weapons from foreign arms dealers and using hijacked or stolen vehicles to ram cash vans off the road.
All the members are well-armed and many have a military background.
Planning attacks either on deserted roads or as cash van operators walk from their vehicles into banks or shopping malls with money, robbers will kill if forced to.
The South African Bank Risk Intelligence Centre (Sabric) says that the sites for heists, which are usually deserted roads or quiet sections of highways, are carefully chosen "as escape is of the utmost importance as the robbers cannot afford to be stuck in traffic".
A senior Sabric researcher, who cannot be named for security reasons, said that Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were the hot-spots because most of the cash-in-transit companies "operate here".
"Other reasons include the fact that a number of the robbers are from Zimbabwe and Mozambique and flee to these countries to hide out after the heists."
"The 'hottest' heist period," she said, "was over the festive season.
"This was because of the perception that more money is transported during this period of time and also because foreigners, who are usually involved in the heists, need money to support and spoil their families at home."
The researcher said the usual modus operandi for the so-called classical heists was the "tap-tap" method where a stolen or hijacked vehicle, usually one which has airbags so as to protect the robbery crew inside, is used to collide with the cash van.
The collision is timed so that on impact the cash vehicle falls on to its side, allowing robbers to gain access to the money safes.
Because cash transit companies are building sturdier vehicles, robbers are now turning to pavement attacks, stealing boxes of money as the guards walk into or out of banks and shopping centres.
The researcher said that cash-in-transit heists had a crippling effect on the country.
"One of the most important effects is the perception about our country as well as a drop in investor confidence, which has severe social and economic ramifications."
"Other effects," said the researcher, "include an increase in the fear of crime, financial implications if a bystander's vehicle is hijacked, emotional impact after involvement or being an eyewitness to an often violent cash-in-transit robbery."
Head of the Institute of Security Studies Crime and Justice Programme Anton du Plessis said that heists and the arrogance and excessive force used by robbers had an impact on people's feelings of safety and security, making citizens feel extremely vulnerable.
"These robbers are not day-to-day criminals."
"They are carrying out well-orchestrated attacks on highly secure vehicles with military precision, which shows that they know what they are doing."
"All of this increases people's fear when they see how these robberies are carried out," he said.
Anton Wiid of the Cash-in-Transit Forum said that although authorities were beginning to win the war on heists, these crimes would continue until social issues of education, housing and jobs were addressed.
"The community must accept that there will always be a threshold of crime and we must determine the acceptability or reasonability of that threshold," he said.
"The driving force for these men, besides greed, includes the fact that nearly half of the population is unemployed and have little or no proper education."
"Once these issues are addressed then we can start addressing cash-in-transit heists and other crime," he said.
National police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said that a national project known as Operation Greed, which is operated by the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit, had been established to combat cash-in-transit heists and bank robberies.
"The detectives work closely with the banking council and Sabric to discuss ways of combating heists," she said.
De Beer said police success from January until the end of November under Operation Greed included the arrest of 69 cash-in-transit robbers, 52 bank robbers and the recovery of 126 weapons and 92 vehicles.