Quick thinking and reaction by one of the employees of the Woolworths store in Linksfield along with shopping centre security guards, saved the shop more than R30 000 which had just been grabbed by two men in an armed robbery.
Two men, one allegedly armed with a gun, are said to have entered the shop along Club Street on 13 September and allegedly held up till operators before escorting two of them into one of the store’s offices and demanded to be given all the available money.
The men were then handed the money and they fled the scene but a quick-thinking employee of the shop pressed the panic button that led to another quick reaction from the shopping centre security guards who intercepted the alleged fleeing robbers and managed to apprehend the armed suspect.
Police were called to the scene and responded immediately and on arrival suspected another car in the parking lot with two other occupants. According to Norwood police spokesperson Captain Elliot Tshivhase, the police approached the car’s occupants and found them with eight cell phones, some of which rang in the presence of the police members.
The police then searched the car and discovered three firearms and immediately suspected the two were linked to the other two who had just allegedly robbed the shop. The two men were arrested, along with the other suspect who was apprehended by security guards.
The police were then handed R31 000 and a firearm by security guards found in the possession of the armed suspect they apprehended.
The fourth accomplice who fled the scene was arrested the following day and all four appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court on 17 September and remanded in custody.
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