SHOPPERS were shocked when three armed men robbed the Red Square store at Hillcrest Corner and threatened staff just after 10am on Monday, 25 March.
According to Captain Linzi Smith, Hillcrest SAPS communications officer, two employees who were inside the store at the counter reported that the men had originally come into the store and posed as potential shoppers.
“Three unknown males entered and showed interest by enquiring about perfumes. Within a few minutes they left and arrived for the second time,” said Smith. “One of the suspects threatened the staff with a firearm. They demanded cash and keys.”
“The suspects took the employees to the back of the store and locked them up in a storeroom. The suspects then took an unknown number of bottles of perfume, cash of about R1000 and a cellphone,” said Smith adding that after taking what they wanted the suspects fled on foot.
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Smith said a security officer from the nearby branch of Nedbank, tried to intervene but fled after he was threatened with a firearm.
“He called for back up by which time the suspects had disappeared. A case docket of business robbery has being opened and investigated. Anybody with information is urged to please contact Hillcrest Police Station detective branch.”
Beverly Wilson, centre manager for Hillcrest Corner said while the centre had a policy against issuing statements she could confirm what police had reported.
“The store isn’t trading but will be from tomorrow morning,” she said, adding that no one was injured in the robbery and no firearms had been discharged during the incident.
Wilson rubbished the accounts being spread on social media about the incident including a shooting. “I have already started seeing those stories being shared,” she said. Shortly after the incident took place myriad reports began surfacing on Whatsapp groups and Facebook, many with details later confirmed to be incorrect.
This is not the first time the centre has been the site of armed robberies. In January 2018, a jewellery shop was robbed after armed men broke a window and fled with goods, and in December 2016 a shoot out took place near the centre’s banking hall.
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