Cape Town - The Lifestyle Centre on Kloof Street in Cape Town has become the latest target in a spate of robberies on malls in the city.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said two armed men entered an office at 8.30pm and took an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing.
No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made.
A post on the Facebook group Public Servant WC Appreciation Squad suggested that the centre’s parking management team were robbed.
Three armed men also robbed a parking office at the Cape Gate Mall in Brackenfell on Sunday.
A witness, who declined to be named, said
the armed men entered the P3 parking lot and headed to the parking office demanding that staff open the safe. They left with an undisclosed amount of money stashed in a bucket.
The robbers had arrived in a black Toyota Yaris at around 7.39am.
“They proceeded straight to the parking office, opened the door and forced two female staff members into the walk-in safe and took the money from the parking machines.”
The witness said the robbers were seen leaving the parking office with a bucket.
Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana confirmed the robbery.
“According to the reports, three armed suspects entered the shop and demanded an undisclosed amount of cash and then fled the scene,” Kinana said.
Police were investigating a case of armed robbery and no arrests had been made.
There have been at least 20 attacks on malls in Cape Town in the past two months. Last month, a security guard was shot and killed in an apparent cash heist at the Waterstone Village Centre near Somerset West.
On Saturday, four armed men fled with computer equipment, two cars and an undisclosed amount of money when they robbed an electronic store in Montague Gardens.
Kinana said the men overpowered staff who were opening an LG store.
The men tied up the staff in a back room before fleeing with the goods. The two cars that the robbers fled in belonged to the store’s staff.
On Friday, two armed men made off with an undisclosed amount of money after holding up the Checkers store in Meadowridge. The men escaped in a white Toyota Corolla.
In Lansdowne, four armed robbers held up a local supermarket, Silvertree Super Store, at around 6.55pm on Friday.
The store’s CCTV footage showed the suspects enter the store: one pretended to queue at the till, but once it was his turn to be served he took out a pistol and pointed it at the cashier. While he was busy with the cashier, his accomplices forced customers out of the store.
The shop owner and the cashier were forced to lie on the ground as the robbers looted the store and made off with the cash.
Shop owner Jabal Bandeker said although his shop stayed open until 10.30pm, it was usually “relatively safe”.
No arrests have been made.have been made. – Additional reporting by Chelsea Geach
Cape Argus