A WOMAN who lives close to Columbine Square had gone to draw money from an ATM at the shopping centre at about 13:00 on Tuesday, May 31.
“I only wanted to draw R200 and as I approached the ATM I saw a slip hanging out. I took it and was about to throw it in the bin when a man appeared from nowhere and said it was his slip. I gave it to him and he walked away. There was then another man who came behind me in the queue and the man I’d given the slip to, appeared again, looking like he was checking the slip. He then said, ‘Ma’am, your card is going to get swallowed, cancel your transaction’, and he pushed my hand away and kept pushing the cancel button. I told him not to touch the machine and he backed away,” she said.
“I then realised he’d taken my bank card and I shouted at him, saying, ‘You’ve taken my card.’ I saw the man in the queue behind had gone. The man I thought had taken my card said I was being a racist and I was trying to cause a scene. Then another man appeared and said, ‘He didn’t take your card, it’s still in the ATM and you need to punch in your cellphone number. I told him to get away and then tried to run after the first man who had my bank card.”
The shopping centre’s security guards came to the woman’s assistance and tried to catch the man but he managed to get away.
The woman phoned her husband and asked him to cancel her bank card. By now R3 000 had been taken out of her account.
SOS ProtecSure had a vehicle at the centre and the suspect was followed to Soweto where he was apprehended and arrested the same day.
“The men were dressed like businessmen. They looked like they came from a corporate environment and I didn’t suspect them at all.
“Michelle Pelser (Mondeor Sector 1 CPF) came to assist me, she was such an angel. I was really shaken up and felt rather foolish that something like this had happened to me. You always think it won’t happen,” added the woman.
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