Staff Reporter
Windhoek
Police say thieves who stole N$440,000 from the First National Bank (FNB) ATM at the old power station in Southern Industrial Area in Windhoek on Monday morning are professionals.
By yesterday afternoon no suspects had yet been arrested.
“It is an organised group and they know what they are doing. They are not (money) spenders – which is common among robbers. They are keeping a low profile,” stated a police source, who added that there are about five known professional torch cutters around the city.
Khomas Regional Police commander, Commissioner Silvanus Nghishidimbwa, also told New Era yesterday the method used indicates that it is people who know what they are doing because they are trying to destroy the evidence – that is why they cut the cameras and took the server so that their movements and identity are not found out.
The incident happened early Monday morning when suspect(s) cut the door of the ATM machine using a cutting torch and got away with the cash.
The police source said that these robbers scanned the environment before their robbery.
It is alleged the thieves disconnected a camera outside the ATM by approaching from an angle that does not record, cut it and it went off.
The robbers further cut another camera inside the ATM room and took a server.
The police explained that the server captures footage when one enters the ATM room. It is in this regard that the police think the suspects have inside information.
“And this is what happened in a robbery in Khomasdal two months ago (at a FNB ATM that was robbed of half a million). The money was put in the machine today and the following day it was stolen. It can’t be that when money is put in the machine it is stolen,” added the police source.
Nghishidimbwa said it is now the police task to find the thieves and they are busy.
“We are asking everyone and anyone who has some sort of information to inform the police,” he said.
Asked if there are similarities between the Khomasdal and old power station robbery, Nghishidimbwa stated that the modus operandi more or less looks alike, but it is too early to link the two cases.