Ceiling gives robbers access to store

A hardware store was robbed for a second time last Friday after the robbers gained access through the ceiling in the early hours.

The floor was left in chaos as the thieves grabbed and loaded stock onto a company vehicle.

MOKOPANE – The owner of Steel and Build, Edwin Phasha said the men got access to the premises through the roof at the office in the back of the building as well as through the roof on the sales floor.

The robbers disarmed the alarm by cutting the wires.

They also forced a rolling steel door open in the courtyard where they took a Isuzu single cab bakkie and filled it with stock to the estimated value of R30 000 before they left with the vehicle.

The hole in the ceiling at the office in the back of the building.

The second entrance in the roof on the sales floor.

Phasha said the bakkie was recovered the same morning abandoned in Seshego.

“It is the second time my business got robbed. In July 2015 they used the same modus operandi and fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money. Since then I do not keep cash on the premises.”