Cops confuse business robbery cases
There was a robbery at Bradbury Commercial Auto Body in Silicon Street, Ladanna recently, where several items were stolen
POLOKWANE – There was a robbery at Bradbury Commercial Auto Body in Silicon Street, Ladanna recently, where several items were stolen.
According to the police at the time, a case of business robbery was being investigated.
But a follow up of the story ended with an admission from the police that they confused two similar cases and that they carried no knowledge of the incident at Bradbury’s, even after having given information regarding CCTV footage, which now seemingly was linked to that of another business burglary.
Corne de Beer, manager at Bradbury Commercial Auto Body, explained the events of the day of the robbery.
“Myself and another manager, Arrie de Beer, opened the business at 06:45. I was in the office upstairs and Arrie was in offices at the workshop. Three men entered at the workshop entrance and asked for work. Arrie explained to them that we are not hiring and one of the three men took out a firearm and forced Arrie to take them upstairs to the offices. When they came upstairs they found me and the other two men also took out firearms.”
According to De Beer, the men demanded to know where the safe was, but were told that no cash was kept on the premises.
De Beer added that they were searched, after which the men took their cellphones and money.
“They told us to lie on the ground, later they fled in a blue Ford Focus.
“We called the police and opened a case. We gave the police the registration number of the vehicle and the police told us that the registration number belonged to another vehicle in Johannesburg. Since we reported the matter we have not received any news from the police and we do not know whether someone was arrested or not,” De Beer said.
This week, Capt Mohlaka Mashiane, the spokesperson for the Westenburg police said the police had no record of the incident.
