Business robberies a growing concern in the east of Pretoria

Staff and customers held hostage at gunpoint while robbers loot businesses – this is a crime scene which over the past two months has been slowly gaining prevalence in the east of Pretoria.

An average of one business robbery in a week took place in the past two months, according to police and private security companies.

In most of the business robberies staff and customers were held at gunpoint. On August 23 a PEP Home store at Moreleta Plaza was targeted by criminals, staff and customers were held at gunpoint as the robbers looted cellphones.

In the past three months a PEP store at the Silverton mall has been robbed twice and cellphones were taken. Before that, Ackerman’s store at the same shopping centre suffered the same crime.

Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Isaac Mculu said after the robberies the police increased visibility around shopping malls deploying patrolling officers.

He said the state of robberies in the east in the past two months was stable with only one case reported in a week.

“The criminals are always violent when they approach the victims. In fact, they don’t want to be disturbed. Community members are urged not to act but to comply with their (robbers) orders, because properties can be replaced, but life cannot be replaced,” Mculu said.

He said areas that have been affected by the crimes were being monitored by the police and the neighbourhood watch.

“We want residents to always feel safe when going to shopping centres at all times.”

On August 22, a suspect was killed after their car rolled over during a high-speed chase by police following an armed robbery of the Déonne le Roux jewellery store at Woodlands Boulevard shopping complex.

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Two men, one armed with a firearm, went into the shop and they held the people inside the shop hostage and demanded the jewellery. The robbery was not successful. A shoot-out ensued between suspects and security officers and the jewellery was left behind.

Bull Security spokesperson French Jooste said they had noted a spike in business robberies this time of year with criminals targeting cellphone and jewellery shops.

“The thing is these criminals don’t care if there are people inside the mall or shop they will hit any time of day and they are heavily armed and dangerous. They will enter the shop acting as customers,” Jooste said.

“At some stage, we had two robberies a week, especially cellphone shops, which are one of the main focus points.”

When involved in such situations, Jooste urged residents to remain calm and not to fight robbers.

“Never try to confront these criminals. These criminals come in large numbers and will do anything to get away. They shoot at the police and they shoot at security. Never try to stop them.”

Jooste said another crime that was drastically increasing was cellphone tower battery theft.

“In the past month, we had numerous of these towers broken into and the batteries stolen. This is now drastically increasing. These criminals will do the extreme to get to these batteries. Vandalising and breaking the tower access gates to get access.”

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CSI Security operational manager Bernard Jadrijevich said business robberies were becoming a regular occurrence.

“The robbers use aggression and intimidation to force compliance but their main objective is to successfully get away with their targeted items as quickly as possible. If faced with resistance, however, they don’t hesitate to escalate the use of force and will shoot at anybody in their way,” Jadrijevich said.

Jadrijevich said police and security companies were working together in fighting crime.

Paramedic Casper Visser described robberies as traumatic for victims, especially when there are fatalities.

“A few years ago, I was on a scene where a man was killed in front of his wife and two children because he tried to fight with armed robbers,” he said.

Visser said that was one of the crime scenes that he would never forget.

It can take a long time to recover from the experience with some people sitting with long term post-traumatic stress disorder.

Visser said people who suffered long-lasting psychological effects were usually referred to a trauma counsellor or a chaplain to assist with their mental health after the fact.

“Some victims are still in fear even after the suspects have left. They mostly fear that the suspects will come back,” he said.

Visser said children involved in robberies usually became confused after such experiences.

BREAKDOWN OF ROBBERY DATES :

– Silver Mall PEP store: August 21
– Déonne le Roux jewellery store at Woodlands Boulevard shopping complex attempted robbery: August 22
– PEP Home at Moreleta Plaza robbed: August 23
– Silver mall PEP store robbed: June 29
– Silver mall Ackermans store robbed June 03.

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