The Shopping Centre Armed Robbery Thread....

^^ Haven't read this thread in a while - but this is getting out of control yes - is this a syndicate, it seems to be countrywide, have not seen many reports coming from Western Cape & Freestate.
 
Spurt of Armed Robberies hits SA’s Major Shopping Centres

The sudden spurt in business robberies in some of South Africa's major shopping centres has caused concern among the public — in the past months, a number of malls were attacked by armed gangs and robbed of cash, cellphones and jewellery.

SA Commercial Prop News has learnt such incidents have been reported mostly from Gauteng areas with the following centres becoming the latest target; Centurion Mall in Centurion, Maponya Mall in Soweto, Cresta Shopping Centre in Randburg, Northgate Mall in Northriding, Rosebank Mall in Rosebank, the Glen Shopping Centre in Glenvista southern Johannesburg and Cradlestone Mall in Muldersdrift.

Gauteng residents say they are deeply concerned about the recent spate of robberies, saying they fear shopping in malls knowing that gunmen can strike at any time. Last month, a shop assistant from a small store in Sandton City was lucky to survive after two suspects attacked her with a knife.

Though Police suspect that different gangs have committed the robberies, there is a pattern in many of them.

An iStore was targeted at the Centurion Mall on 22 August, the third such outlet to be hit in the province in less than a month.

On 13 August, a shopper was shot and wounded when a gang of men stormed the iStore at Cresta Shopping Centre. The robbers made off with bags full of iPhones and iPads.

Twenty-four hours later, the iStore at the Glen Shopping Centre was also robbed. A security guard was wounded in the leg when at least seven men robbed the shop, fleeing with electronics worth more than R1 million.

Also last month, a jewellery store in Rosebank Mall was robbed by two men who held staff at gunpoint, ordering them to load jewellery into bags before fleeing.

In June, a gang robbed a jewellery store at the newly built Cradlestone Mall. The men allegedly held staff at gunpoint before making off with several items.

The Maponya Mall and Northgate Mall were recently targeted on Monday, both incidents took place around 9am.

Armed Robbery Stats

Armed robberies in shopping centres rose by 60 percent in 2012/2013 compared to the same period in 2011/2012, according to the Consumer Goods Risk Initiative (CGRI).

The highest targeted commodity in shopping centre robbery incidents in 2013 were cellphones.

A total of 438 incidents of robbery in shopping centres were reported in 2012/2013, compared to 274 in the previous time period.

The majority of cellphone robberies took place in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

CGRI is a unit within the Consumer Goods Council of SA that specialises in preventing crime in the retail industry.

It was recently involved in developing a cash distribution system for shopping centres in Johannesburg designed to decrease cash-in-transit robberies.
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http://www.sacommercialpropnews.co....robberies-hits-sa-major-shopping-centres.html
 
Sixth armed robbery at Gauteng shopping mall

JOHANNESBURG – Robbers have targeted a sixth mall in Gauteng this week, with the latest hit at a clothing store in Fairland, in Western Johannesburg.

Police have launched a manhunt for a gang of at least eight men, who held up staff at the Timberland store at the Worldwear Shopping Centre a short while ago.

The police's Lungelo Dlamini says, "They removed all the clothing and fled the scene in a double-cab bakkie. Nobody was injured, no shots were fired."
There's been at least one robbery at a Gauteng mall every day this week, in both Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Gauteng police have launched a manhunt for three men who robbed a Telkom store in the Eastgate Shopping Centre.

They say the men entered the store late on Wednesday afternoon and demanded cellphones from staff before fleeing.

On Tuesday, four men reportedly robbed a Telkom store at the Kolonnade Shopping Centre in Pretoria East of cellphones with a resale value of R200,000.

Dlamini says no one was injured and a case of business robbery is being investigated.

Several shopping centres have been targeted recently, with the Maponya Mall in Soweto and the Northgate Mall hit on Monday. Last week thieves made off with equipment valued at hundreds of thousands of rands after robbing the iStore at the Centurion Mall.
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http://ewn.co.za/2014/09/04/Armed-robbery-at-sixth-Gauteng-shopping-mall
 
Hate to say it ... but Christmas time is coming. Remember the previous years with this?
 
Don't know if this has been mentioned but Bayside Mall in Blouberg has seen 2 robberies in the last month. Incredible connection but was early morning and Telkom 2 weeks ago, just before closing time so lots of people around.
 
A HIGH-speed car chase came to a dramatic end when an armed gang crashed a hijacked vehicle into a building in North End, Port Elizabeth, yesterday.

Three suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested by members of the police Tactical Response Team (TRT) about an hour after they crashed the vehicle into the corner of a building at the Brassel Street and Govan Mbeki Avenue intersection at about 11.30am.

The men, one of them armed with a firearm, had fled after allegedly robbing an Altech Autopage business in Sixth Avenue, Walmer, just before 11am.

After holding up three women in the store, the robbers escaped with a large amount of cash and what is believed to be tens of thousands of rands’ worth of cellphones and laptops.

The only person injured in all the drama was one of the suspects, who cut himself on glass from the store while trying to flee.

Police closed Govan Mbeki Avenue to traffic for a while as a crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene.

After crashing the vehicle, the men fled towards Robert Street where they entered One-Stop Take- Aways and tried to escape through a back entrance. They were arrested behind the store. – Shaun Gillham
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http://www.heraldlive.co.za/three-held-police-chase/

brassel05.jpg
 
Popular Kwikspar in Linden hit

LINDEN – Security guard directs traffic outside while armed robbers take undisclosed sum of money.

Armed robbers took an undisclosed amount of money from Linden Square Shopping Centre’s Kwikspar on the morning of 05 September.

This while the shopping centre’s security guard was directing traffic outside the centre, and claimed that he did not see anything until it was too late.

A Linden police detective and Linden Neighbourhood Watch Operations Manager Fareed Hoosen confirmed that at about 7.50am armed robbers in two white sedan vehicles with unknown registration numbers robbed one of Linden’s most popular grocery stores at gunpoint.

The security guard on duty at the time claimed that one of the gates at the centre was closed and he was directing traffic outside while the robbery took place. He claimed that he did not see the robbery until it was too late to act.

It is not known how much money was taken, and the Kwikspar’s management refused to speak to the media. It is believed that there are no CCTV cameras at the centre.

Questions were sent to Linden police spokesperson Carol Mulamu, and comment is awaited.
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Details: Linden police 011 888 9212, Linden Neighbourhood Watch [email protected], 076 413 7184.

Nicholas Zaal | 5 September 2014
http://randburgsun.co.za/236763/popular-kwikspar-in-linden-hit/
 
Cradlestone Mall Samsung store robbed

JOHANNESBURG – The police are now searching for a gang who robbed a Samsung store at the Cradlestone Mall on the West Rand.

The robbers made off with cellphones and tablets worth hundreds of thousands of rand yesterday afternoon.

It's understood five gunmen entered the shop and threatened the staff with guns before locking them in a backroom.

The store manager says the robbery was well coordinated.

“About five guys came in and locked my staff members and customers in the back. They emptied our cabinet and they were gone. It happened so fast.”

This is the latest tech store to be robbed in Gauteng.

Meanwhile, Gauteng police said they are following several leads in connection with robberies at five shopping centres across the province this week.

But no arrests have been made.

In the latest incident, the World Wear Shopping Centre on the West Rand was targeted on Thursday.

Police are searching for eight gunmen, who robbed the Timberland clothing store in Fairlands.

Gauteng malls have fallen victim to a spate of robberies in recent days.

On Monday, both Maponya and Northgate Malls were robbed while a Telkom Connect store was robbed at the Kolonnade Shopping Centre in Pretoria on Tuesday and another at the Eastgate Shopping Mall on Wednesday.

(Edited by Refilwe Pitjeng)
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http://ewn.co.za/2014/09/06/Cradlestone-Mall-Samsung-store-robbed
 
Would be interested to know if we will be moving from 5th to 4th or 3rd even regarding world crime stats.
 
I'm wondering what they do with the phones and tablets, since they obviously get blacklisted in SA, I'm assuming they take them over the border? Can't they pick them up at the border?
 
reactor_sa said:
I'm wondering what they do with the phones and tablets, since they obviously get blacklisted in SA, I'm assuming they take them over the border? Can't they pick them up at the border?
Click to expand...

A few thousand changing hands fixes that.
 
GLEN CELLPHONE STORE ROBBED

A cellphone store at the Glen shopping centre in Ormonde, Johannesburg, was robbed on Monday evening, Gauteng police said.

"The suspects stole cellphones and fled the scene," said Captain Doniah Mothutsane.

No shots were fired and no injuries reported.

"No arrests have been made yet, but we are investigating."

She was unable to confirm the value of the cellphones stolen or the number of people involved in the robbery.

This was the fourth robbery to have taken place at the mall in the past year.

Stock and money from the Samsung store at the mall were stolen on July 30. Staff were tied up and locked in the back of the shop.

Last month seven people robbed the mall's iStore of electronic equipment. A security guard was shot and wounded as the thieves fled.

On November 18 last year cellphones were stolen from the Vodacom store in the mall. Shots were fired in the parking lot outside.

Source : Sapa /kd/th
Date : 08 Sep 2014 21:52
 
This is screwed up.
This weekend I had to go shopping, and I kept on thinking : please don't rob this mall please don't do it while I'm here.

Stupid criminals.
 
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