BLUE Security has warned of armed robbers targeting several businesses on the Berea over the past week.
Brian Jackson, Blue Security operations manager, said in an incident on Monday, a gang of 10 armed men entered a shop in Brickfield Road at 11.26am pretending to be customers.
“The armed robbers then held up the staff and customers and ripped open three till points to steal cash. They also stole cash from the safe and on-site monitors for the store’s CCTV surveillance cameras. There were no injuries reported,” he said.
SAPS attended the scene of the crime.
Jackson said in a second incident two armed men had held up truck drivers in broad daylight, as they were offloading goods at a business premises in Williams Road in Umbilo last Wednesday.
“The robbers held up the drivers at 9.37am and fled with two 80kg bags of rice. There were no injuries reported,” he said.
In another incident that evening, three armed men held up the owners of a bottle store at around 7.30pm in Warwick Avenue and fled with cash, cigarettes and alcohol.
Jackson said an Umbilo resident was hijacked of her Toyota Corolla outside her property in Holmes Road last week.
“Two armed men driving a silver VW Polo with a GP registration held up the resident at 1pm in the afternoon and fled with her car,” he said.
He said there had also been incidents of theft in the Glenwood and Glenmore areas where thieves had stolen two cars, a laptop and charger from an outbuilding. He urged residents to be on the lookout for a metallic green golf with a CA registration as it was linked to one of the car thefts.
“Housebreakers targeted properties in Mayville, Musgrave and Morningside and fled with jewellery, clothing, a television, laptops, cellphones and tablets,” he said.
Jackson said the company had noticed a trend where criminals were fishing items out of open windows and gaining access to properties through unsecured windows.
“Housebreakers will also climb up drainpipes onto balconies to enter through unsecured upper level windows so we urge residents to make sure that all their windows are properly secured with both burglar bars and sensors linked to the house alarm,” he said.
Blue Security also advises residents not to leave items like handbags, cellphones and wallets lying around where they can easily be “fished” through a window.
