Update: ‘Hat trick robbery’ suspects released
Three suspects were arrested in Ermelo in connection with the hat trick robberies in Middelburg, and then released again "because they could not be connected with the crimes".
Three robberies were committed in less than 30 minutes in Middelburg on Tuesday the 26th of January.
Janmy Engen in Samora Machel Street, the Caltex garage near the corner of Cowen Ntuli- and Meyer Street and Sasol in Meyer Street were robbed of cash and cigarettes in a short time span with police and radio groups scrambling from one crime scene to the other.
Help from the general public led to the identification of the vehicle the robbers travelled in, a silver Volkswagen Polo, and it was spotted at the Total filling station near Hlalamnandi on the Hendrina Road shortly after the robberies took place.
Attempts to box in the car were unsuccessful and the robbers fled in the direction of Hendrina with radio group members in hot pursuit. They lost sight of the suspects after they passed through Hendrina.
Wally van der Walt, of ACSU, a security company based in Ermelo, said that a description as well as the number plate of the suspicious vehicle was circulated among filling station owners in Ermelo.
On the 3rd of February, one such owner recognised a vehicle, matching the description and with the same number plate, at a petrol pump and pressed his panic button.
An ACSU response team rushed to the scene and after a high speed chase, managed to trap the vehicle in an area of township outside Ermelo known as Sun City.
Three suspects were arrested on the scene and their vehicle was impounded.
Capt. Khanyisile Zwane said that the men were released after they could not be linked with the robberies. Their fingerprints were not found on the system and police determined, by looking at video footage, that they were not the same men.
She could not explain what they were doing in the same vehicle matching the description and number plate of the one involved in the robberies.
Read previous story here:
Video: Gewapende roof by Sasol
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