A shop next door to the Lansdowne police station has been robbed… again.
Four men, three carrying guns, walked into Talha Supermarket, in Lansdowne Road, at 5pm on Monday July 5, and ordered the shop assistant to open the till, say police.
According to Lansdowne police spokesman Sergeant Nkululeko Mnyaka, they took R5000, cigarettes worth R4000 and the employee’s Samsung S30 before fleeing in a white Toyota Fortuner without firing any shots.
The shop owner, who wants to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, said the gunmen also took an iPad, chocolates and Drypers nappies.
“They took all the money from the till and looked for more money, pulled out all the boxes and asked my employee if there is more money. They asked him where is the other money. He told them he’s not the boss and that the boss took all the money. They hit him twice in his head with a gun and punched him once and then left the shop.”
Sergeant Mnyaka said the robbers were still at large.
“The shop is located on the main road and next to a bus stop, and it is very easy to get away there. That is why they are targeting the shop. They don’t care that SAPS is right there. They probably monitored the shop very well. These criminals have no respect even for the police station,” he said.
The police station’s back gate is next to the shop, but Sergeant Mnyaka said the police had not seen anything. He said that the shop had also been robbed in August last year but no arrests had been made.
Rafique Foflonker, Lansdowne Community Police Forum chairman, said the police station’s back gate was not used often.
“If you are going to rob a business, you look at what time there are less people around, and at 5pm it is a quiet time. It’s quite embarrassing that the shop gets robbed right around the corner from SAPS.”
Lindsay Thomas, coordinator of the Amity Way Block Watch, said the area around the shop was quite dead later in the day, so robbers knew that they would not be interrupted.
“There are not many businesses around there, and once the few that are there close it is very quiet, so the robbers knew this and took a chance. It’s opportunists. A lot of petty crimes have been happening in Lansdowne lately and a lot of rumours are going around about who it is,” he said.
Anyone with information about this robbery can contact Lansdowne SAPS detectives at 021 700 9000 or 10111.