Armed robbers wreak havoc
Pini Bothoko | Monday November 15, 2021 06:02
Despite the police having intensified their investigations and having an upper hand in their game in the fight against crime, armed robbers continue to get away without a trace. In September three armed men overpowered G4S Security guards and made away with cash amounting to P7.4 million which G4S security guards were supposed to load up at an ATM at the Middlestar shopping mall prior to the robbery. This past weekend, four masked armed robbers attacked Trans Africa wholesalers in Tlokweng, fired shots and collected large amounts of money from the cash registers and stole alcoholic beverages. On Saturday, still in Tlokweng, five men attacked employees of One-Stop Liquor Wholesalers, threatened them with a big log and stole cash amounting to P64,000.
To date, all the suspects are still at large and the stolen money has not been recovered. The robberies occurred at around 8pm when the two wholesalers were about to close business for the day. It appears that the perpetrators are adamant about their mission to rob businesses as armed robbery cases are reported on daily basis. The police have warned the business community to be wary of gangs of armed robbers who appear to have mounted a spate of heists particularly in and around Gaborone in a new wave that is targeting businesses.
The warning follows another robbery incident that occurred on Monday at African Mall, Gaborone. The Gaborone Central police station commander, superintendent Mothusi Phadi said a gang of four masked men putting on black hoods attacked the shop and instructed the cashier to give them money. “The thieves were armed with knives and something that looked like a pistol, demanded money and made off with cash amounting to P7,000 that was in the cash register. Investigations are ongoing to locate and arrest the suspects.
We are currently struggling to identify the suspects from the CCTV video clip because they were all masked up,” he said. Phadi said armed robbers are on the prowl and pleaded with the business community to be on the lookout and discouraged them from keeping large sums of money in their possession. He further advised them to consider depositing money at the bank throughout the day to avoid losing large sum of the money to avoid being robbed. Asked what could be informing the latest spike in armed robberies, the police revealed that usually such cases spiral out of control as the festive season approaches because everyone wants to spend their festive season loaded. The police have called on the business community to engage more security guards, hire honest employees and install alarms to avoid falling prey to criminals targeting businesses. However, some Batswana across social media platforms have been attributing the alarming rise in crime to the country’s high unemployment rate, especially amongst the youth of the same age group that has been identified as the perpetrators.