“I better tell everyone I’m sorry for what I have done because I’m about to go to heaven now.”
These were the first thoughts that flashed through 18-year-old Diane Lee Murray’s mind when she heard the first of what would be a series of explosions during an ATM bombing.
She lives in Bredell next to Bredell Square on Third Avenue where a Standard Bank ATM was blown up on Monday night.
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According to Kempton police spokesperson, Capt Jethro Mtshali, a security officer stationed at the shopping centre said a white VW sedan pulled up at the gate at about 11.30pm. The occupants of the car hooted at him but he ignored it.
“Suddenly one of the robbers got out of the car and pointed a firearm at him. The security officer immediately took cover and several shots were fired at him but luckily he was unharmed,” Mtshali explained.
In the meantime, back at the house, Murray went to wake her family. At this stage, it seemed they hadn’t heard the gun shots coming from the shopping centre.
“After the first explosion, I immediately went to wake up my mom to ask her if she’d also heard it. She struggled to get up but eventually went outside to see what was happening,” Murray explained, still shaken from the incident. Then the second explosion went off. This time Murray went to wake up their neighbour, Kenneth Mongi.
“We actually started worrying that the diesel tanks in our yard may have blown up or something.”
Thirty-four-year-old Mongi and Murray’s older brother, Timothy Robert Murray (23), attempted to step outside the yard and go to the shopping centre to find out what was happening. But their investigations were short-lived when the third explosion went off, almost instantly followed by the sound of two gun shots, believed to have come from automatic firearms.
“Then about five minutes later, the fourth bomb went off,” Murray recalled.
By this time, she and her mom had run back into the house and her brother and Mongi ducked and dived inside the yard, desperately trying to secure shelter from the bullets. They finally found safety underneath a truck.
At one point, they saw the ATM robbers running up their street, pass their house, still shooting in the direction of the centre.
Luckily no one was hurt during the incident. CMS Security was on the scene and later the police arrived.
“We haven’t found any bullets in the yard but one of the trailers has a dent. We think it might have been hit by a bullet.”
The robbers made off with an undisclosed amount of money and no arrests have been made yet, said Mtshali.
Investigations continue and a lookout for a white VW Golf as well as a blue one has been issued.
