Armed robbers in daylight raid

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
A GANG of armed robbers yesterday stormed wholesale outlet, Bulk Cash and Carry, located on Basch Street and Khami Road in Bulawayo, and viciously assaulted staff and customers before getting away with more than US$2 000 in cash, a wallet and till with an unspecified amount of money.

The incident, which occurred yesterday at around 12:30pm, is the latest in a spate of high-profile armed robberies targeting businesses around the city. Last month, six armed robbers raided a Bureau de Change in Bulawayo and made off with an undisclosed amount of money in foreign currency. When Sunday News got to the scene yesterday, the wholesale outlet’s owners were still counselling and consoling staff members who were attacked by the gun-wielding robbers.

Narrating the incident, the outlet’s visibly shaken supervisor, Mr Solomon Mtandabari, said they were taken by surprise when the robbers made a surprise assault on the shop just after midday.

“I just heard some commotion and someone yelled and said Solo what is happening outside and that’s when I replied and said I didn’t know what was going on. From then on one of the robbers, I think they were four or five, cocked his gun and shouted that everyone should lie down. One of them then came to me and asked where the money was. I told them that there was no money here today. He asked me what the side room near the tills is for and I told him that it’s where ladies change and he asked to go into that room,” said Mr Mtandabari.

Once inside the changing room, the robber, he said demanded cash but when he found out there was none, he put a gun to the shaken supervisor’s head and told him to walk back inside the shop.

“He had the gun on me and then he asked the till operator where the money was. Meanwhile, they were still assaulting our boss Mr Shahazad. He asked the till operator where the money was and she said there was a communication breakdown with our boss because his English is not good and that’s when they also slapped her.

They took the box with the cash and started hitting it with a hammer trying to open it,” he said.

Mr Mtandabari said they were not sure how much money was in the till that the gang later fled with.

The robbers also took a phone and a wallet from the shop-owner before assaulting a customer and taking away over US$2 000 in cash. On their way out, the marauding robbers also used their hammer to smash a door on the administration block. Bulawayo police spokesman Inspector Abednico Ncube said he could not comment on the incident as he was yet to be briefed.