Three elderly women were caught shoplifting on CCTV at 4 Shots Liquor at Kempton Square on Thursday afternoon last week.
“My husband, Ramesh, and I saw what happened the following day when we played back the footage,” said the store’s Raksha Singh.
“We couldn’t believe our eyes that it was elderly women who did this.”
According to Raksha, the three women worked with three other suspects to commit the alleged crime.
The footage shows two women enter the store as potential customers. They start looking around. One of the women takes a bottle and places it between her thighs underneath her dress, while her partner shields her obstructing the view for employees.
The women continue to look around as though nothing happened.
“Another elderly woman walked into the store asking to buy whisky. I attended to her and she told me she wanted 10 bottles. When I told her the price of the whisky she asked me to show her another cheaper brand,” explained Raksha.
“I now realise she was distracting me from seeing the first two women because she never bought anything and said she would return the next morning which she never did. While I was attending to her, a young man walked in and briefly spoke to me before wandering around the aisle. He also left as soon as he saw I was watching him.”
According to Ramesh, their one employee, Sbu Tshabalala, was kept busy by another man whom they suspect was also working with the women.
“He entered and Sbu attended to him but he kept asking about prices and looking around the store. At first it appeared normal but when we played the footage we could see he kept making eye contact with the women who were seen shoplifting,” said Ramesh.
“The two women took a second bottle the same way and none of us saw because I was at the counter. My wife was kept busy by that woman asking about whisky prices and Sbu was distracted by the man who didn’t seem to know what he wanted.
“So both women hid the alcohol bottles between their thighs.”
Raksha and Ramesh told Express the two women did buy two bottles of Heineken.
At the end of it all, the alleged thieves left with a bottle of Absolut Vodka, Ballantine’s and Tanqueray for which they did not pay.
“We were shocked and disappointed that old people can do such things,” said Raksha.
“We come from a background where we respect the elderly but it is sad that some of the old people have resorted to theft; it really is heart-breaking.”
