Robbers’ filling station spree

Two filling stations in the city fell victim to robbers in the early hours of Monday morning.

April 21, 2015

Riana Joubert 2 minutes read

The safe at the Total filling station on the corner of Grobler, Grimm and Thabo Mbeki Street is blown wide open. Over R100 000 was stolen by six robbers in the early hours of Monday morning.

POLOKWANE – Two filling stations in the city fell victim to robbers in the early hours of Monday morning.

The first filling station that was robbed was the Total filling station on the corner of Grobler, Grimm and Thabo Mbeki Street. At around 00:45 six men in a silver 320 BMW pulled into the filling station and forced one of the petrol attendants at gunpoint to fill the vehicle. Four of the armed men then went into the shop and held the employees at gunpoint as well as a customer. They were forced to move to the back of the shop.

Another suspect prevented other vehicles from entering the area at the Thabo Mbeki Street entrance.

The safe behind the counter was blown open with explosives and the men made their get away with an undisclosed amount of money as well as R500 petrol.

Weden Peceur, the owner of the filling station, said the incident was a serious inconvenience to him. “Besides the damage, the trauma, the money and stock lost in the blast, the business was closed for a significant length of time, meaning further loss of income for me,” he said.
He said that even though the filling station was insured, it was not yet known if all the money would be replaced.

“I am most grateful that my employees cooperated with the robbers and that none of them were injured in the robbery. One of the men, however, will need trauma counselling as he was in a total state of shock when I arrived at the filling station. He could not stop crying as he told us what they went through when the robbery occurred,” Peceur said.

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Shortly after 01:00 what is suspected to be the same BMW entered the Sasol Penina Park filling station along Church Street and again four of the six robbers stormed the shop and the safe was blown open. One robber remained in the vehicle while another stood guard at the filling station entrance for oncoming vehicles.

The owner of the filling station, Zunaid Abdool, said that as the filling station was quiet most of the employees were in the back room having their meal break and only two employees, a man and a woman, were left in the shop.

He said the woman was forced to lie down on the floor and the man was taken to the back room to join the other employees who were forced to hand over their cellphones and made to lie down on the ground and cover their faces. The robbers then emptied the till and placed the explosives on the safe and it was blown open, the robbers made their getaway in the BMW and headed in the direction of Lebowakgomo.

Polokwane police spokesperson, Capt Ntobeng Phala confirmed that both incidents were being investigated as armed robberies and no arrests had been made as yet.

He urged anyone with information to contact Johanna Phoshoko from the organised crime unit at 071 481 3163, or the investigating officer, WO Alugumi Nemukula at 071 481 6873.