Video: Hat trick for robbers
In sport, scoring three times in a row is called a hat trick. A group of armed men scored a hat trick of a different sort when they robbed three filling stations in Middelburg in less than half an hour in what one filling station manager called a "hit-and-run robbing spree".
Authorities and members of various radio groups were called out to a robbery at Janmy Engen in Samora Machel Street on Tuesday night at around 22:00.
But before they could reach their destination, another report came in, this time of an armed robbery at the Caltex filling station in Cowen Ntuli Street near the train station.
Whilst they were busy looking at CCTV footage to try and identify how many suspects and what vehicle to look out for, the third robbery at Sasol in Meyer Street, just around the corner, was reported.
The same suspects were seen on all three filling stations’ security footage. They wore caps and were armed with handguns.
They targeted the money in the cash registers and cigarettes. The men made sure not to park their vehicle in view of any of the cameras.
A member of the public informed the police that the robbers parked their vehicle, a silver Volkswagen Polo Vivo, at the tavern in Meyer Street next to the train station.
Shortly after the robberies took place, a vehicle matching the description with four occupants, two white and two black males, was seen at the Total Garage on the Hendrina road.
Members of the public tried to box in the car but the driver of the car managed to evade their efforts and flee in the direction of Hendrina.
Radiogroup members chased after them but could not catch up with the car and lost sight of is between Hendrina and Ermelo.
“At times he was travelling at around 200km per hour,” an anonymous source, who was on the scene, told the Middelburg Observer.
For two of the three filling stations, this is the second robbery in a short time span. Sasol Meyer Street was robbed two months ago, end November 2015, and Janmy Engen fell pray to robbers less than a month before the most recent robbery.
Read previous stories here:
Video: Gewapende roof by Sasol
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