Rabie Ridge Police are looking for three perpetrators who robbed a company in broad daylight and took laptops, a printer, and a hard drive valued at R140 000, among other items.
The station spokesperson Sergeant Dipolelo Moremi said a case of business robbery was being investigated.
Moremi said according to the complainant, he was sitting in the reception room when he heard a vehicle hoot at the gate of the business in Austin View on September 28, around 12:45.
“The complainant checked the CCTV and noticed a white Hyundai H100 truck at the gate and he remotely opened the gate. The vehicle [then] parked in front of the reception room and the complainant approached the vehicle and saw three unknown men in the vehicle,” said Moremi.
The vehicle registration is unknown. There were no shots fired and no injuries sustained during the robbery.
Moremi said there were more people inside the vehicle, but the man who was in the passenger seat pointed a firearm at the complainant and demanded the office keys.
“The perpetrator pushed the complainant into the reception room and instructed him to lie on the ground whilst he kept watch. The other men forced entry into seven offices and loaded seven laptops, one switchboard for a CCTV camera, one printer, and one hard drive – valued at R 140 000 – onto the back of the Hyundai bakkie and left.”
The company’s managing director said he suspects that the company is being targeted after a series of robberies he and his senior management colleagues suffered recently.
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“Late June or early July, I was mugged and only my laptop was taken. That’s why I strongly suspect a possible betrayal from competitors. [The houses of] two of my colleagues, who are in management, were also broken into and only their work laptops were taken,” the managing director said.
He said business development laptops were the ones taken in the recent heist while generators and other valuables items were left, which gives him the confidence to suspect sabotage.
He added that the latest robbery negatively affected the business and they might take time to recover some of the information they have worked on since the establishment of the company in 2012.
This is the second incident where electronics were stolen in the Midrand area following a 20-computer heist at Midland Primary and High School in Crowthorne AH on September 22.
Related article:
https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/311349/police-investigate-r150-000-computer-heist
