Niël Terblanché
A brazen cash-in-transit heist that unfolded at the Grove Mall in Windhoek on Wednesday morning, left the city’s residents in disbelief.
A group of five robbers, armed with pistols and an AK47 assault rifle, made off with N$305,987 during the daring cash-in-transit robbery.
According to the incident report provided by the Public Relations division of the Namibian Police, the daring robbery took place when three employees employed by Namibia Protection Services were collecting cash from various retail outlets situated in the mall
“The three guards started collecting money from the various shops at about 08h00 and at about 10h06 one officer went to collect two more boxes of money from Checkers while the driver remained in the vehicle,” the report reads.
According to the report, the guard that went to collect the cash boxes put the containers on the ground to open the doors at the back of the cash-in-transit vehicle when the gang of robbers swooped in
“The guard saw five armed robbers approaching him. He told investigators that the men were armed with pistols and one AK47 assault rifle.
They ordered him to lie face down on the ground. The driver of the cash in transit vehicle was ordered to do the same.”
While the guards were held at gunpoint the rest of the robbery gang started to carry the boxes filled with cash from the cash in transit vehicle to their getaway vehicle.
Once loaded up, the gang of robbers drove away at high speed through a security gate that was supposed to be closed at the time of collecting the cash from the shops in the mall.
Another oddity about the daring robbery was that the getaway vehicle, a white Volkswagen Jetta had GRN registration plates fitted to it.
The one fitted to the front of the getaway car was GRN 32911 and the one at the back was GRN 27012, meaning that the registration plates were stolen from government vehicles.
The incident report confirmed that the robbers also stole the firearms of the security guards but stated that none of them were injured during the robbery.
According to the report, none of the stolen cash or firearms has been recovered and a manhunt for the gang of armed robbers has already been launched.
