Two Pretoria shops robbed simultaneously

Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Dave Miller said the search for the robbers was ongoing, Rekord East reported.

Androulla Sofocli, the owner of both the House of Coffees and Debonairs at the Olivewood shopping centre in Wekker Road, said both shops were robbed just before closing time, at about 8.45pm, on Sunday.

Sofocli said she was in the office of the coffee shop when she turned around and noticed a man holding one of the workers at gunpoint.

Another robber grabbed Sofocli, held her at gunpoint and asked her where the money and the safe were.

“He kept telling me not to look at him,” Sofocli said. “He kept pushing me down to the ground when I tried to get up, and I told him that I could not open the safe if he kept pushing me down.”

Sofocli gave the robbers the cash inside the safe and the robber took her passport, two cellphones and bottles of whiskey that were kept on some of the shelves inside the shop.

While the three men were robbing the coffee shop, two others raided Debonairs.

The robbers are believed to have fled in a silver Mercedes-Benz and a white VW Golf 6.

In a separate incident, a gang that apparently had planned to carry out an armed robbery in Marburg, KwaZulu-Natal, has been arrested.

Acting on information received, Warrant Officer Christo Mostert from the Port Shepstone Crime Intelligence Section and Devlyn Abbott from Hibiscus Coast Protection Services pounced on a service station in Oslo Beach and arrested the three suspects before they could carry out their plan yesterday.

They are expected to appear in court on Friday.

– Caxton News Service