A gang of 20 robbers, armed with rifles and shotguns, and using three trucks and three sedans, robbed the Dion Wired shop, in Woodmead, at 4am today.
“The robbers escaped with laptops, cellphones, plasma TVs, LCDs, home theatre systems and other home appliances of unknown value,” says inspector Lee Ramdiyal, of the Sandton police station. “They managed to escape using two trucks, but left one truck behind, which is still being investigated at the scene of the crime.”
The large-scale raid ended in a shoot-out between the robbers, police and security guards, in which one security guard was injured.
This is the latest in a spate of robberies in the Woodmead area targeting shops that sell electronics. Two security guards were wounded during a shoot-out with 21 armed robbers at the Woodmead Value Mart (Audiovision store) last month. In December, an attempted robbery at FurnMart left one suspected robber dead, while seven others were nabbed at the scene.
Growing trend
Marko Pike, director at Audiovision, believes there is indeed a growing trend of electronic appliance theft and robbery. “A couple of electronic appliance stores were robbed in the past few months. Plasma televisions, digital cameras and other digital equipment are targeted. These are in extreme demand nowadays,” he explains.
However, SAPS senior superintendent Tumi Golding denies robbers are targeting electronics specifically. When robbers attack a shop, Golding says, they normally do not have any specifications. Money is their first priority. “After that they take whatever they can get,” she explains.
Pike argues that it seems as if there is a syndicate carrying out the robberies. “I was watching the video footage of the recent robberies and it looks exactly like the video footage that I had.”
He says the robbers are improving their methods and must be caught.
“Stores are losing so much and can only do so much, and this is getting out of hand. I feel police are not doing much. I have put in some measures to try and prevent the robberies from taking place in future.”
Efforts to obtain comment from Dion Wired failed.
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