RUNDU – Kavango East police investigators are on the hunt for a gang of armed thugs who robbed and shot a security guard at Rundu’s Engen service station, located at the roundabout along Eugene Kakukuru main road, where the unknown criminals stole N$386 900 in cash and fled.
The money was to be taken to the bank for depositing but how the thugs got wind of such a huge amount of cash has the hallmarks of a robbery possibly based on inside information.
“The suspects went armed with pistols pointed to the complainant and took a bag of cash, shot the security guard in the legs, damaged the complainant’s tyre and got into their getaway car and drove away,” confirmed Deputy Commissioner Bonifatius Kanyetu, the crime investigations coordinator for the Kavango East police.
According to Kanyetu the vehicle used in the heist was a silver Toyota Corolla.
“Nothing has been recovered and no one arrested yet. We are busy with our investigations,” he said and confirmed that N$386 900 was stolen in the robbery.
The 39-year-old security guard who was shot is an employee of Tanhwe Security Forces.
At the end of October last year the same business suffered a similar fate when a gang of armed robbers raided the service station’s mini shop, ‘Ginos’, and to date no suspects have been arrested in that robbery in which cash of N$40 000 was snatched.
The gunmen entered the shop as it was closing and the money was to be taken to a safe.
“Businesses must make use of CCTV which can help us to catch these guys, and they must use security companies to transport their cash to the bank, not their staff because they are endangering them as well,” Kanyetu said.
“Businesses or people must avoid moving with such cash – they should at least ask for assistance when they are doing so, not on their own, money is hard to get but they are making it easy for robbers to get it. They are making themselves vulnerable to be robbed,” he added.