Lavern De Vries
8 July 2009
Eyewitnesses to a robbery at a Canal Walk store claim that a security guard at the scene of the latest armed robbery at the mall fled while it was being robbed.
But Canal Walk spokesperson Vanessa Herbst said the security guard left to alert the mall's security control after noticing the robbers running to one of the mall's exits.
Witnesses, however, said the woman guard ran away.
On Monday evening, five men, armed with a crowbar, robbed ITA Jewellery store of thousands of rands worth of rings, bringing the amount of reported robberies at the mall to three in as many months.
A witness, who saw the drama unfold, told the Cape Argus that a security guard stationed inside ITA Jewellery, saw two men enter the store.
"They started talking to each other and then, without warning, one of them took out a crowbar and smashed the display cabinet where the rings were," the eyewitness, who declined to be named, said.
The eyewitness said the security guard then ran off, leaving the store's employees - including a four-month pregnant woman - with the robbers.
The two men are believed to have been joined by three accomplices.
They gathered more than 150 rings, one of which was valued at about R153 000, and fled through a nearby entrance with their loot.
An employee said the security guard's actions put their lives at risk. "The security here is lax. They only patrol to ensure that we are trading during the mall's hours and if we don't, they hand out fines on behalf of management."
Other mall shop employees also said several other shops have been robbed earlier this year but, they had been told by centre management to keep mum about the incidents.
Herbst on Tuesday confirmed that two in-store thefts had occurred in two separate shops but, that the goods had been recovered "due to the quick response of our security team".
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