According to Carletonville police’s communication officer, WO Peter Masooa, a staff member at the Pep Home store in Emerald Street was helping a customer at around 08:30 on Friday. Suddenly, a man dressed in black came up to the employee and showed her the handgun he had with him. “Stay calm. This is a robbery. If you do anything, I will shoot your colleagues,” he threatened. “The machine is offline,” the robber told the customer, who had wanted to buy airtime. He then forced the employee to open the gate to the cash registers for him. She noticed he had three accomplices in the store. They all spoke Zulu. “Open the safe,” he instructed the employee. She explained that the safe had a time delay and she could not open it immediately. The robber then ordered her to take him to another safe, which was at the back of the shop. He made her open it and the four intruders stuffed three bags full of cell phones. They then forced all the employees into a back room and tied them up with cable ties. The robbers fled in a silver Nissan Almera with Limpopo number plates, parked outside. Once they had left, the employees managed to free themselves and call the police. Two detectives, constables Michael Dire Ramasimong and Samuel Mosihleng, were the first to respond. They spotted the Almera and chased the robbers onto the Bank road. They notified the Randfontein police that the robbers were heading in that direction and their colleagues waited for the suspects to enter their precinct. Once the Randfontein police had spotted the robbers’ car, a shootout ensued. Two of the robbers were seriously injured while another was arrested at the scene. The fourth managed to escape. The injured robbers were taken to Leratong Hospital for further treatment. The case is now being investigated by the police’s trio task team.
