Terror trail as robbers strike
2006-03-23
ROBBERS brought the streets of Paarl to a virtual halt last Thursday, after a cash heist at a pension payout point near Paarl Hospital.
Two men entered the Paarl homing pigeon club hall in Berg River Boulevard at approximately 09:30, while more than a hundred people were queueing inside and outside the building for their social grant payouts.
The robbers ordered two security guards to hand over their weapons, and when one guard resisted, various shots were fired.
The guard, Wendall Alberts of Delft, was fatally wounded when he was shot in the chest and leg.
Everybody fell to the ground in terror and the robbers grabbed one of the cash boxes which contained several thousands of rands.
The robbers fled in a dilapidated Mazda 323 that was parked outside the hall, in which their accomplices were waiting.
The overloaded car sped northwards in the Boulevard and turned right into Optenhorst Street, causing chaos at the robot.
An eye-witness whose car was narrowly missed by the speeding assailants, Margaretha Baxter, said that the car's doors were open and the men were squashed together “like sardines”.
Just before the railway bridge, opposite a service station, they stopped their car and forced an oncoming Toyota Conquest belonging to the security company AC Rottweiler to stop.
The men fired a number of shots and threw the two security guards from the vehicle, before fleeing in the direction of Wellington, abandoning the Mazda in the middle of the road.
In Jan van Riebeeck Drive, the driver of the hijacked Conquest lost control and ploughed into a bus stop shelter, causing extensive damage to the car.
The driver was injured, but his accomplices hijacked yet another vehicle, a bakkie belonging to Neil Keyser, and continued their attempted escape, while the injured man was left at the scene.
Keyser said that he had witnessed the accident and had slowed down to help.
“Suddenly several men sprang from the Toyota and held me at gunpoint. The cars ahead of me had also slowed down, so I could not even attempt to drive away.” said Keyser.
By this time, police officers from all over Drakenstein had been deployed in hot pursuit of the robbers.
At the Mbekweni intersection, the men turned right into Buitekant Street in Newton with the police behind them, and a gun battle ensued.
The driver of the bakkie was shot in the head and the vehicle came to a halt. The police arrested a further three men, bringing the tally to five.
Just as the scene had been stabilised, the arrested robbers removed and the money box retrieved, the officers’ attention was caught by a woman in Bloem Street summoning their help.
It was an off-duty policewoman, Insp Piliswa Ntshiba, who had heard the screeching tyres and shots being fired.
When she went outside her house to investigate the commotion, three armed men ran up to her demanding that she hide them.
When she refused, two climbed over the wall to a neighbouring house, while the third man returned and demanded to be allowed inside.
“I had no choice but to let him in, but I stayed outside. This is when I was able to summon the police.
“Fortunately I have been trained to handle such situations and kept calm throughout,” Insp Ntshiba said.
One man was arrested in her house, while the other two suspects were arrested at the neighbouring house.
After further investigation, two more men were arrested on Friday morning, of which one was a security gaurd who was on duty at the time of the robbery. Two more men are being sought by police.
All of the men are from Philippi and eight appeared in the Paarl Magistrate's Court on Monday. The case was postponed until 27 March.
* Approximately half a kilometre from where the gun battle took place in Newton, a woman in Apollis Street was in the kitchen preparing food for her elderly mother.
Lenie Bastiaan was standing with her back to the window above the sink.
“I heard the shots in the distance, but was too busy to take note. Suddenly I felt something hard hit my back and I fell to the ground in terrible pain.”
Lenie did not realise that she had been hit by a stray bullet, which had entered through the window.
The bullet only grazed her skin, and was retrieved from the sink.
More
News
|
