Friday the 13th brought more bad luck to eMalahleni residents when they got robbed of a massive amount of cash.
Ms Isabel Jacobs said that she requested to withdraw an amount of R50 000 on Thursday, at a bank in Klipfontein.
According to the bank they could not give her that amount of money at that time of day.
She told the WITBANK NEWS that she and her husband went back to the bank early the following morning.
“The cashier who assisted me told me that I have to go to the side for the bulk withdrawals. The guy who assisted me recognised me from the previous day, took my documents and processed it. He said that he had to get authorisation from the manager and he assisted the person behind me in the meantime. When I got my money, I asked for a white bank bag, which he said that they did not have only transparent bags. I told him that I will rather put the money in my bag, and we left,” Jacobs said on Tuesday, April 17.
She added that they put the money in the boot of their BMW which has smash and grab as well as tinted windows.
“You can not see what is in my boot either.”
They went to Wimpy to get breakfast.
She asked the car guard to check her car.
“Shortly after we entered Wimpy, we heard a commotion outside. When we went to check, we just saw a bunch of people standing by our car,” she said.
Jacobs added that she asked the car guard what had happened: “The white Golf GTI came around the corner and men jumped out. One of them jumped on my car’s back window until it broke. They just said: Grab the money, and let’s go. Get the money and go. The car guard asked them what they are doing, where one pointed a firearm at him and asked: ‘What are you going to do?’. They took my bag with all the money inside, my documents, identity document, everything was in there.”
Jacobs added that they went back to the bank to ask for assistance.
“The people there were not helpful at all. I spoke to the lady at the door, asked to speak to the manager but she only said that there is nothing they can do. She only said that I should open a case at the police which I did.”
They saw video footage of the shopping centre where Jacobs saw that a white Golf GTI came around the corner as soon as they came out the bank. “They knew the money was in my boot, but how we do not know.”
She added that she withdrew such a large amount of money, due to building extensions at her house.
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“We had to buy bricks and the place only accepts cash.”
Another incident on the same day, an amount of R250 000 was taken in the same area in Klipfontein.
This happened just past 12:00.
The complainant told police that he went to the same bank as above, and went to his vehicle and drove off.
As they were driving in Hans Strydom Street he alleges that he saw a white Ford Focus ST with registration number: FKT 239 MP.
He added that when he stopped at the stop street, the vehicle allegedly blocked his vehicle and he could not drive through.
This was when two males came out of the Ford, both allegedly armed with fire arms. They allegedly said ‘voetsek’ numerous times and the victim and his wife were both threatened with firearms.
The victim told police that he put the money in a plastic bag which the suspects took and drove toward the Klipfontein area.
The victim was not available for comment before time of print.
Maureen Scheepers from SACCW (South African Community Crime Watch) said on Tuesday that they pulled the information about the vehicles and sent out a ‘be on the lookout’ post on their Facebook page.
This was after the information of the robberies was reported to them.
“We drove around for about two hours to ensure that no one would be hit in another robbery. We did like a ‘mass patrol’ whereby numerous responders drove through shopping centres, the streets of eMalahleni as well as at the mall,” she said.
They urge the community to still share this information and if anyone has more information or have spotted the vehicle, contact Maureen Scheepers on 082 565 6770 or David Wessels on 072 777 3012.
Alternatively, contact them on Zello on the open channel: https://zello.com/SACCW.
