Durban - Motorists pumping fuel of petrol stations are being urged to be vigilant after a video surfaced online showing an armed gang of balaclava-wearing robbers holding up motorists at Hillcrest service station.
The dramatic footage was captured by CCTV cameras at the BP garage at the Watercrest Mall in Hillcrest where the gang pounced on at least two unsuspecting motorists.
In the video, a white vehicle is seen pulling in and parking next to the tyre pressure pump.
At the petrol, pump adjacent is a blue car that is parked being driven by a woman
The petrol attendant begins to pump pressure into the white car and soon thereafter all the doors open except for the driver’s and three men in balaclavas with guns jump out of the car and run towards the unsuspecting motorists.
One of the men disappears off the video’s screen while the other two are seen at the window of the blue car, one of them is wearing what appears to be blue latex gloves.
The two men can be seen clearly struggling with the woman as she puts on a fight clutching onto an item that both men want.
They tussle for a while over the item until it is pulled from her hands and at that point, the third man appears back in the video frame carrying what looks like a handbag.
As the last man tries to get to his getaway vehicle with the stolen item from the woman’s hand the woman makes one last fighting attempt by opening her door but the assailant pushes her door shut before fleeing.
The scary day time robbery comes as police continue to hunt a gang that has been prowling banks around the city and robbing people who have drawn large amounts of money.
Two such incidents took place recently in Durban, in Sea Cow Lake, and Bartle Road in Umbilo, where the robbers made off with undisclosed amounts in both incidents.
Both victims were allegedly followed from inside a bank by the robbers and both incidents were captured on video.
One of the victims, a 78-year-old man robbed in Sea Cow Lake, said the three men who robbed him had all carried guns and had known exactly which pocket the money was in. “I’ve withdrawn large amounts of cash from the bank in the past. I believe this was an inside job involving the teller,” the man told the Daily News.
The second victim, a 39-year-old man, had just left a bank in Davenport having withdrawn a large sum in cash, when he was accosted by four armed men who robbed him.
The man was wounded twice in his right arm, while the robbers fled the scene in a getaway vehicle.
The Sea Cow Lake incident was captured on CCTV footage from outside Solly Manjras, a popular restaurant and takeaway, where the man had stopped to buy food.
In both videos, the car which the robbers are travelling in appears to be the same in both videos.