A Raisethorpe shop employee was pepper-sprayed and assaulted by three armed robbers during a brazen robbery on Sunday evening, with the suspects fleeing with cash and cellphones in a matter of seconds. The incident took place just before 8 pm at the superette, which is at the corner of Chota Motala Road and Naidoo Road. The suspects fled, allegedly with R7000 cash and cellphones, using a getaway vehicle.
Bismillah Superette employee Ibrahim Alam said the suspects initially entered the store pretending to be customers before returning moments later to carry out the attack. “The shop was not too busy when the three of them came in and pretended to buy items. They asked about products and then left.
A few minutes later they came back, and one of them had a gun while another had pepper spray,” said Alam. “The one suspect sprayed my face first and then slapped me. They pointed the gun at us and demanded money.
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They took cash from the till and our cellphones and then fled in a vehicle parked nearby. The whole incident lasted about 20 seconds.” Alam said this was the first such incident at the store, and it has left him shaken and concerned for his safety. He added that the robbery has forced him to reconsider the shop’s operating hours.
“I usually close around 10 pm, sometimes earlier if it’s quiet, but now I will have to reduce the hours. If the shop is not busy, we will close earlier,” he said. Another business owner in the area, who did not want to be named, said ongoing crime has created fear among residents and traders.
“There is a lot of crime, and people are afraid to walk in the area. We don’t know who we can trust anymore because of the criminal activity,” the owner said.
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