Staff and shoppers who were in store at the time are still coming to terms with the armed robbery at Glencoe Spar on Friday evening.
A gang of about eight men, several of whom were armed, entered the shop shortly before closing at 6.30pm. After posing as shoppers, they held staff at gunpoint and forced shoppers to lie on the floor.
Two staff members were robbed of their cellphones and cash taken from two cash registers. Float money was also taken from an upstairs office.
Owner, Andrew Meli, was hauled out of his office and taken to an in-store ATM and forced to open up the cash box. An elderly woman, who had arrived at Spar during the robbery, was hit on the head with a shotgun after refusing to give up her handbag to one of the gang members.
She was later treated in hospital. The men fled in a Colt bakkie that arrived in the parking lot as they left the store. A driver and a woman passenger got out of the bakkie but at this stage it is unclear what their part was, if any, in the robbery. The NKR Colt bakkie was later found abandoned near the Glencoe abattoir.
The gang appeared to have another getaway car waiting for them. Security groups and SAPS launched a manhunt but to date no arrests have been made. Louis Menelaou of Glencoe Spar expressed his thanks to all who assisted looking for the gang and assisting traumatised staff and shoppers.
“We are just grateful no one was more seriously injured or worse”. The men made off with money and cigarettes.
. More details in Thursday’s Courier
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