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CCTV captures robbery at Comaro Crossing

Security officers at Comaro Crossing Shopping Centre in Oakdene have warned customers to exercise caution before leaving their vehicles to do their shopping.

OAKDENE: This warning came after two robbers were captured by CCTV on September 5, stealing a laptop and a cellphone which were in the robbery victim’s car. Security footage exposed the two suspects following an unaware man into Pick n Pay, a few minutes after he’d pulled up into the parking lot.

While viewing the footage an officer talks the Comaro CHRONICLE reporter through the happenings in the video: “Here are the same two men again exiting Pick n Pay and going to the victim’s car,” he explains as he points to the surveillance monitor which clearly shows one of the men running out of the mini-market, shortly pursued by his accomplice who casually follows him out of the store towards the customers vehicle.

In a response to the incident, Comaro Crossing management gave this response: “The safety of our shoppers and their possessions is of the greatest importance to us. Our security contractor has completed its investigation and, based on the CCTV footage; it seems the customer was almost certainly targeted by perpetrators who knew he had valuables in his vehicle. Our security company suspects remote jamming was used,” said Property Manager, Natalie Atkins.

“We can confirm there were at least four suspects involved in the theft from the vehicle. The actual theft took less than a minute, with three of the perpetrators cunningly shielding the CCTV camera from capturing the fourth man removing the shoppers’ possessions from the car. It is distressing for us that one of our customers could fall prey to these thieves, despite extensive security measures at the centre. We are giving the SAPS our full support in their investigation and will continue to help them bring these perpetrators to book,” she added.
Pick n Pay manager Jarrod confirmed knowledge of the incident, also that the victim of the robbery had come to them for assistance in getting an idea of what had actually taken place prior to the belongings left in his vehicle vanishing into thin air.

According to the victim of the robbery, the Comaro Crossing Centre management and Security department displayed no enthusiasm to help ascertain the events leading up to the robbery which is when he then decided to approach Pick n Pay for help.
Although Comaro Crossing management said that reports that come through from Security have to always get approval from management before they can allow anyone to view security footage.

“When we get complaints from customers we have to forward them to management first before we can let the customer inside the security control room for viewing of the footage,” explained Head of Security.

Comaro Crossing security record book shows that at least three to four people leave their car keys in the ignition or the windows of an unlocked vehicle open. While car guards and the centre security are always vigilant in picking this up, they urge customers to be careful when leaving their cars to go into stores because there are unsavoury individuals waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims.

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