Mall robbery: robbers in and out in 6 min
Security at Savannah Mall has been increased after a group of 12 men broke into Savannah Mall at 04:30 on Tuesday and gained access to Dischem.
POLOKWANE – The men gained entry to the mall after breaking the glass doors at Entrance 4, Centre Manager Lionel van Lis, confirmed.
According to Van Lis, they cleared out the store’s entire perfume section. “The entire ordeal lasted six minutes. They were clearly very organised,” Van Lis told Review.
He confirmed there were six unarmed guards on duty at the time. “They heard the glass breaking and immediately phoned the police and waited for them to arrive.”
As the security guards were outnumbered and the suspects armed, the guards were told to stand down and let the police handle the situation.
“We didn’t want to risk losing another security guard, like last year, due to an armed robbery,” Van Lis said.
He believes the break-in was well organised and that the next step for the mall is to work closely with the police as well as Dischem.
Van Lis said that even though they have increased security, this alone might not be enough.
“We are looking at placing the mall on lock down after hours.
This is, however, difficult as the mall is open around the clock because of the banks’ ATM availability to customers,” he said.
Dischem’s head office was not available to comment at the time of publishing.
According to Provincial Police Spokesperson Col Ronél Otto no arrests have been made yet.
Information from an anonymous source given to Review states that this is the fourth incident in three months that has occurred at the mall with several shops being robbed since June.
Read more about the previous robberies in today’s Review Weekend.
Read more:
1 Dies in armed robbery at local mall
(SOUND) Savannah Mall shooting – ‘he gave his life for mine’
Savannah mall robbery: 2 suspects in custody
