ALL THAT ORGANISATION FOR NOTHING

This was Thursday 22nd's post.

It's all very well to say "All that orgaization for nothing". They may have gotten away with empty cash canisters, but human beings were hurt during the excercise and damage was done to a man's vehicle. Innocent bystanders had guns waved around at them - how on earth is that 'nothing'? Have we become so desensitised, that these things no longer matter to us?

All that organisation for nothing
April 01 2008 at 07:22AM
By Barry Bateman

A gang of robbers perfectly executed a cash-in-transit heist on Monday, escaping with several cash containers. They were all empty. At about 11.45am several men pounced on a Red Eagle Security van on a service road behind the Bon Accord Spar, shooting one of the guards in the knee.

'I put my foot down and got out of there'

Several of the armed men waited in long grass along the road while three others rammed their stolen green Audi A4 into the cash van. Witness Kobus Stone said he was driving about 20m behind the Audi when it suddenly swerved into the cash van.

"The front and back passengers jumped out and started smashing in the van's windows with their AK-47 rifles." When I drove past, a white Renault Scenic pulled up behind the cash van. "One of the guys jumped out and pointed his AK-47 rifle at me.

'It's a big gun'

"I put my foot down and got out of there," he said. Stone said a vehicle coming from the opposite direction was also chased away by a rifle-wielding suspect. "It's a big gun. I have always heard of the AK, but never seen one," he said. Red Eagle Security owner Hennie Grobler said his guards were only slightly injured.

They were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated. He said the van had just escorted another van to a bank and was on its way back to the company's headquarters in Hammanskraal. "It was an empty vehicle, they got away with empty cash containers," he said. Police spokesperson Captain Jan Legoabe said the men escaped in a white Renault Scenic. Legoabe said the Audi was stolen in Johannesburg in February.

No arrests have been made.

This article was originally published on page 3 of Pretoria News on April 01, 2008