A GANG armed with AK-47s stormed into Southgate Service Station in the early hours of Wednesday, 17 June, blew up two drop safes and stole between R50,000 and R60,000 in cash.
“At about 2am, eight men arrived at the premises, four entered the convenience store and four remained outside. Four staff were inside and eight in the forecourt area. A security guard who was in the toilet noticed the commotion and pressed the panic button,” said manager Mark Hardman.
However, the service station’s security company was unable to get through on the landline. By that time, two of the robbers had ordered staff inside to lie on the floor in the kitchen area. Explosives were used to blow up the drop safes and remove the cash.
Hardman was alerted to the incident and when the security company called him on his cellphone, he was able to relay to them that the robbery was in progress.
“No staff member was injured. The robbery took 12 minutes.” The robbers arrived in two vehicles, a gold-coloured Volvo and a double cab Nissan bakkie.
Hardman thanked ET Security, Blue Security and Toti SAPS which all responded within five minutes of the incident.
Due to the damage caused, the service station is closed, but will re-open in the next two days.
In February, similar incidents occurred at garages in Warner Beach and on the R603, near St Winifreds.
In the Warner Beach incident, which occurred on Monday, 9 February at about 1.18am, an AK-47 was believed to have been used to detonate explosives attached to the safe.
Four days later on Thursday, 12 February at about 1.20am at Kingsburgh Garage on the R603, a safe was also bombed and an undisclosed amount of cash was taken.
