Quick arrest of sloppy Umdloti business robbers

Umdloti residents can breathe a sigh of relief after a business robbery last Monday turned out to be nothing more than a sloppy inside job.

In what could qualify as an episode of reality TV show “America’s Dumbest Criminals”, five men drove into Umdloti in a dark blue Toyota Etios with genuine number plates.

It parked at the petrol station, where two of the men got out of the car in full view of CCTV cameras and made their way to the intended target, Blue Bottle Liquors.

According to Durban North Saps, the two men posed as customers, took a few bottles of expensive alcohol from the shelves before one of them pulled out a gun. They held up the cashier and cleaned out the till.

Loot in hand, the two men casually strolled back to the car and drove off.

But fine detective work and cooperation between Durban North Saps detectives, Marshall Security’s investigative unit and the Community Police Forum (CPF) not only saw all the perpetrators behind bars before the end of the week, but also revealed that the cashier, who had only been employed at the bottle store for a few days, was the mastermind.

Durban North Umhlanga CPF chairman, Haden Searls, said the three men who waited in the car, one of them the owner of the car and an Uber driver, were arrested within hours but claimed to have no knowledge of the robbery and were eventually released.

After putting two and two together, police arrested the cashier before the two men who committed the robbery handed themselves over.

The cashier and his two co-conspirators appeared in the Durban Magistrates Court on business robbery charges last Friday.

They were released on bail and must return to court on December 7.

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