Cash Crusaders at Lambton Court was the latest shop to encounter a business robbery by suspects under the guise of regular customers.<\/p>\n
The store, which is divided into two parts, the retail shop and the buy shop, was wrapping up business for the day when it was robbed.<\/p>
According to a shop employee, who wished to remain anonymous, seven men entered the store recently in the early evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one man had a car audio system with him and insisted the staff reopen the buy shop which had just been closed at 5.30pm,\u201d said the witness.<\/p>
In the buy shop, while assisting the suspects, thinking they were customers, the staff members were allegedly informed the store was being robbed and they were to follow the orders given.<\/p>\n
The suspects allegedly took out their guns and threw bags at the staff while ordering them to fill the bags with money, cellphones and laptops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see everything from my office and after pressing the panic button multiple times, the alarm would not go off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left the office through another door leading to the storeroom and right outside the storeroom another suspect was waiting for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe took me to the front and instructed me to open my office door, it requires an access code which none of the other staff members know,\u201d said the employee.<\/p>\n
She deliberately punched in the wrong access code, thinking it could buy her and the other staff time for the security company to arrive, but it did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them the system needed a 30-minute interval to reprogramme itself before I would be able to punch in the code again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Exactly 30 minutes later she was allegedly instructed to key in the correct pin or she would be killed.<\/p>\n
Once the office and the safe doors were opened, the suspects ordered two staff members to fill another two bags with money and gadgets found in the safe.<\/p>\n
An estimated R50 000 in cash, including gadgets, is alleged to have been stolen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we opened the store that morning, a man walked in, leisurely walked around and left without buying anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the camera footage it seems the man was casing the place and we suspect he may have disarmed the alarm during that time too,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough seven were in the shop we think there were more outside as the robbers were following the instructions of an unidentified man over the phone,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
According to Const Maxwell Mabunda, communications officer for the Germiston police, no arrests have yet been made and the case is still under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspects are still at large. What we do know is there were 10 men in total who were associated with the robbery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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