Seven filling station robberies over the past three weeks in eMalahleni are taking a toll on both filling stations and their owners.
On March 26, at about 02:00 yet another filing station in Extension 8 fell victim to a robbery for the second time, 10 days apart when five heavily armed suspects made a quick stop for some easy cash and bombed the safe of Nova Motors Caltex, convenience shop.
“If I can filter through all the incidents that occurred over the 13 years running the business I can think of about seven. Two of them were ATM bombings outside and two incidents where they bombed the safe in the store. The other incidents were petty theft,” said Mr Gabriel De Sousa, owner of the mentioned gas station.
On the footage that was handed to the WITBANK NEWS the whole scene of the robbery took place in four minutes time.
WATCH THE ROBBERY HERE:
“This is the second robbery 10 days apart but their second hit was the hardest and left a lot of damage. Luckily nobody got hurt. Nobody ever got hurt in the previous incidents as well,” De Sousa added.
As the owner showed the footage he explained how the suspects are acting calm and know what they are doing. They succeed to hide their faces the whole time and calmly proceeded to exit the shop to take off in the champagne colour BMW with no registration.
The CCTV camera footage provided showing five heavily armed robbers. They entered a convenience shop at a gas station in extension 8 on Sunday March 26.
The incident that occurred on Wednesday, March 22 at 21:21 in Beatty Street was when three armed suspects robbed a Caltex convenience store and stole cigarettes and cash and all they needed and then disappeared on foot.
Mr Kenneth Joel Mathebula alleged that he was working at the store. He was standing behind the till when noticed an unknown man with a firearm walking around. That was when Mathebula wanted to run but was told to stop.
The suspect then told Mathebula to open up the till and hand over the money.
At the door keeping watch, there was another suspect dressed in security guard uniform armed with a firearm and he had a bag which he used to put all the money inside it.
Then they started helping themselves to cigarettes which they placed in the bag as well. Once they had everything they left on foot.
WITBANK NEWS previously reported about the business robberies increasing by the day in Extension 8 as another gas station down the road got robbed on March 3. It was alleged that the cashier was held up by three armed gunmen just for some cigarettes and a small amount of cash.
“The problem is that the garages are being targeted. So far four garages have been targeted. We want to alert garage owners of the quick shops that they must be alert for suspicious looking vehicles around the garage and people inside the shop. Cash should be deposited more frequently,” said Captain Eddie Hall, spokesperson from Witbank Police Station.
ALSO READ:
https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/32766/video-tempers-ignite-petrol-station/
https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/54719/petrol-station-robbed-by-three-gunmen/
