Cape Town - They knew exactly where to find the diamonds, dashing inside and smashing the display cabinet. Another jewellery store heist has left staff traumatised and wondering who is going to be hit next after they became the latest victims of a spate of carefully planned robberies around the city.
“I’ve got goose bumps just thinking about it,” said Angelique Pretorius, a part-time staff member at Manfred Karner Designer Jewellery Studio. The store, at Camps Bay’s Promenade Centre on Victoria Road, was robbed on Wednesday at around 10am.
Pretorius, who had watched some of the CCTV footage, said a white BMW pulled up in front of the shop and three men had jumped out. “One was keeping security busy… he showed him a gun, I think… and the other two went inside.”
While one of the robbers held the store’s owner and an employee at gunpoint, the other smashed open a window display containing diamond jewellery. “They knew exactly where to go and which window to smash; they went straight for it.”
As quickly as they had stormed the store they were back in the get-away car and speeding down the road.
On January 11, a gang of nine men wearing construction overalls and wielding sledgehammers smashed their way into a jewellery store in the Blue Route Mall.
They used sledgehammers to break display cabinets at Harris & D’arcy jewellers. The robbery took place during the middle of the day while shoppers were walking around the mall.
On January 6, a jewellery shop on Main Road, Kalk Bay, was robbed of an undisclosed amount of jewellery and watches. Three suspects fled with the haul.
Pretorius said she barely knew of any jewellery stores that hadn’t been robbed.
“Who hasn’t been hit now, really? Who’s next? The other owners must be asking ‘Who’s turn is next, is it me?”’
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut confirmed that the robbery had taken place at the Camps Bay mall on Wednesday. He said it was still being investigated. “(The robbers) are yet to be arrested.”
Pretorius said the store’s owner had handed over CCTV footage to the police to help identify the thieves.
Cape Argus