Tag: armed robbery

‘He just pulled out a gun and shot my dad’

Moments after he witnessed a black gunman shoot his father, he held him in his arms.

Ricky Correia, 48, tried desperately to revive his father, Broadway Confectionery and Deli owner Manuel “Manny” Correia.

But the 70-year-old man died on Friday at Vincent Pallotti Hospital.

Manuel was shot in the face during an armed robbery at his business in Voortrekker Road earlier that day.

Correia said his father had been at the back of the bakery and he had been in the front of the store when three robbers approached him.

He was chatting to a customer when one of the men demanded he drop to the floor.

Puzzled by the suspects’ request, Correia thought it was a joke but then the man pulled out a gun.

Meanwhile one of the staff tried to alert Correia’s father to what was happening.

He emerged from the back to find three armed black men, one behind the counter.

“I saw the whole thing. He just pulled out a gun and shot my dad, no questions asked. I screamed and went berserk. I was shouting ‘How can you do this? How can you do this? How can you kill my father?’”

One of the men had already started emptying the till and demanded customers hand over their possessions.

While his father lay on the ground, the gunmen led Correia to the back of the deli wanting him to open the safe.

“They hit me and told me they were going to kill me. I couldn’t remember where the keys were, my nerves were finished. Luckily I managed to force the door open somehow and they hit me with the gun.

“I told them I don’t have the keys to the safe and we don’t even keep money in the safe. Luckily the petty cash was in the drawer with the staff salaries about R5 000. I told them that’s all the money we had.”

Once the robbers fled, Correia rushed to his father’s side. With the help of two customers, they had to drag his body and lift it into a vehicle, rushing him to hospital.

“I still had hoped my father would be okay. Dragging him across the floor was the hardest thing to do. He lay on my lap, choking on his own blood.”

Correia said doctors had tried to resuscitate his father but after an hour he was dead. The bullet had penetrated his tongue and landed in his spine.

He said his father had arrived in Cape Town at the age of 16 by boat from Madeira.

Source: Sunday Argus

Bogus cops hijack motorist

A 37-year-old resident of Springs was hijacked Friday evening after he was pulled over by bogus black policeman at the corner of Springs Road and Denne Road, the Brakpan Herald reported.

The man was on his way home in his Mercedes Benz C180 when he noticed a white car behind him, flashing its blue lights.

According to information from the police, the man pulled over, thinking it was the police. The other vehicle stopped behind him.

The driver and passenger got out of the other vehicle and went to the man’s driver’s side window. One of the attackers immediately pulled out a firearm and they instructed him to move to the back seat.

One of the hijackers joined the victim in the back seat and the other started driving the Mercedes. After driving around for approximately 20 minutes, they dropped off the victim at a factory in KwaThema.

The victim ran to the factory to look for help and the factory’s security guards took him to the KwaThema Police Station, where a case has been opened.

The Herald recently reported on a similar case when a 34-year-old man was hijacked and kidnapped, on Friday, April 10, after he was pulled over by bogus cops in Denne Road; the victim was not injured.

Capt Joep Joubert, spokesperson for the Brakpan Police Station commander, said that if you suspect you are being pulled over by bogus cops, you can do the following:

– Acknowledge that you saw them and indicate that they should follow you.
– Put on your hazards and drive to the nearest police station or public place.

SA beauty feels less ‘patriotic’ after armed robbery

Lee-Ann Liebenberg is feeling less “patriotic” and is still in shock after being held-up by three armed black men outside her house in Johannesburg, News24 reported.

The South African beauty took to social media on Tuesday to share news of the traumatising incident, saying she and her family were followed home from Hyde Park Shopping Centre.

Lee-Ann and hubby Nicky were celebrating their daughter’s first birthday.

Although she wasn’t hurt, Lee-Ann says she’s finding it hard to remain patriotic.

Lee-Ann wrote on Instagram; “After our disgusting distressful horrible ordeal of being held up today at gun point AND MORE IMPORTANTLY GUNS POINTED our beautiful innocent children today…WE’RE CELEBRATING THAT WERE ALIVE! CELEBRATING WITH LOAD SHEDDING…WFT what more?!? I’m trying SO hard to be patriotic BUT……Thank you GOD for sparing us #WeSurvivedAnotherDayInAfrica. (sic)”

Paramedics attacked by black thugs

Three paramedics were held at gunpoint during the early hours of Wednesday, while trying to save the life of a five-year-old girl who was suffering from seizures, ER24 said.

An ER24 ambulance and a rapid response vehicle were dispatched to a house in Khayelitsha shortly after midnight.

While the ambulance personnel was stabilising the girl inside the vehicle one of the doors was flung open and a gun was pointed at them and the girl’s mother.

Two suspects, believed to be in their 20s, demanded cellphones and wallets, while one of the suspects asked for the rapid response vehicle’s key, said the paramedics.

The second suspect went to open the rapid response vehicle, using the key to avoid the emergency sirens going off, while the other suspect held the paramedics in the ambulance at gunpoint.

The suspects fled the scene with cellphones and a GPS from the ambulance.

The paramedics continued to treat the little girl and took her to Khayelitsha District Hospital, ER24 said.

A case of armed robbery was opened at the Khayelitsha police station. No one was injured in the incident.

Death of black soccer star may have been hit

Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa’s death might not be the result of a botched robbery.

The police have not ruled out the possibility that it may not have been a robbery.

This emerged after an Instagram message, as well as an independent person who called the Crimestop line, suggested there was more to the shooting than meets the eye.

The post on Instagram claimed that his girlfiend Kelly Khumalo’s sister Zandile had been fighting with her boyfriend when Meyiwa tried to intervene, but the boyfriend allegedly shot him.

Late on Monday, as shock over the murder of Meyiwa continued, a massive police investigation was under way.

Meyiwa’s killers are now the most wanted men in the country.

A multi-disciplinary police task team is hunting them, and the SAPS’s reward for information was raised to R250 000.

The black star had earlier been at a birthday party for Pirates teammate Rooi Mahamutsa, but left with a friend to go to his girlfriend’s house.

There was immediate speculation on social networks of a hit connected to Meyiwa’s messy private life – the spats between his wife and girlfriend have often made headlines.

Gauteng head of detectives Major-General Tebello Mosikili confirmed that police IT experts were looking into that message and were trying to get hold of the person who posted it.

Mosikili, who heads the team investigating the shooting, said they were taking this allegation seriously because there had also been a call to the Crimestop line in which someone alleged that Meyiwa did not die during a robbery.

Mosikili said she did not yet know whether the person who posted the Instagram message was the one who had called.

The cashless society arrives

Four out of five purchases in Sweden are paid electronically or by debit card and with the development of cheaper technology the trend is moving towards a fully cash free society, according to a new report.

“Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia leads the world in terms of cashless trading,” said Bengt Nilervall at the Swedish Federation of Trade (Svensk Handel).

Swedes use their debit and credit cards almost every day – an average of 260 transactions per person per year.

The picture is very different in southern Europe. In Italy, for example, three-quarters of all consumer purchases are still paid for in cash.

“That is due to the low confidence in the authorities and the banking system,” said Niklas Arvidsson, an associate professor of industrial dynamics.

Arvidsson argued that Sweden could become completely cash free but predicts that this development is unlikely until at least 2030.

“The familiarity of cash in the hand could prevent this. A recent Sifo survey showed that 2/3 people consider (the availability of) cash to be a human right,” he said.

Retailers, banks and card companies welcomed the trend with the proviso that customers are able to keep up with developments.

A cash free society would lead to increased security for both staff and customers and would cut cash-handling costs – estimated to be around 8.7 billion kronor ($1.2 billion), some 0.3% of GDP.

Armed robberies are furthermore in decline in line with the reduction of cash use. In 2012, a mere five bank robberies were committed, according to the Swedish Bankers’ Association – the lowest figure in 30 years.

The spread of cards and electronic payments has had a profound effect even on the street level with fruit and veg traders and even retailers of the homeless magazine Situation Stockholm accepting card payments.

The spread of electronic payment systems such as Swish are a further addition to the plethora of alternatives for people to transfer small sums without having to resort to the ATM.

And even though cash may be dying out in Sweden, the government has announced that a new range of bank notes will hit circulation in 2015. Take a look through the new designs here.

Source: The Local

Oscar Pistorius cleared of murder charges

South African judge Thokozile Masipa has cleared Olympic and paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius of all murder charges, Reuters said.

“Clearly he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom,” Masipa told a court and Pistorius, who broke down in tears.

He could still be found guilty of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, if Masipa believes the athlete was negligent in shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year.

The judge earlier said the state had failed to prove that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder.

The tragedy happened on February 14, 2013, when Reeva Steenkamp’s body was found in Pistorius’s toilet room.

Pistorius woke up at night and heard sounds from the bathroom. Thinking it was a robber, he shot several times at the closed door. When he opened it, he saw his bleeding girlfriend who died shortly afterward.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world and armed robberies are common.

On February 19, 2013 Pretoria Prosecutor Gerrie Nel charged Pistorius with the premeditated murder. Later in February, the athlete was released on bail for a million South African rands.

In March 2013, Pistorius’s lawyers appealed the court’s decision not to let him out of the country, and the appeal was granted. Pistorius was ordered to present a detailed plan of his journeys no later than a week before leaving the country.

Pistorius is a double amputee runner and a six-time Paralympic champion who has also taken part in able-bodied competitions. He won a silver medal in the 4×400 meter relay at the 2011 world championship.

Judge Thokozile Masipa was arrested in 1970s when taking part in protests against the detention of journalists during Apartheid. In 1998, she became the second black woman in South Africa to be appointed a judge.

Soweto: 217 arrested for murder, rape, armed robbery, hijacking

caughtA black man accused of killing his girlfriend has been arrested in Emdeni, Soweto police said on Sunday.

He was taken into custody on Saturday night after his girlfriend was found dead in his bedroom, said Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela.

He was among 217 people arrested around the black area Soweto for various crimes including rapes, armed robbery, hijacking and drunk driving.

A total of 29 illegal shebeens were shut down, said Makhubela.

The arrested would appear in the Protea, Orlando, Lenasia and Roodepoort magistrate’s courts on Monday. – Sapa

Brave homeowner takes bullets to save family

A 31-year old man’s bravery could have cost him his life but it stopped three robbers from entering his home.

According to Capt Jethro Mtshali, Kempton Park SAPS spokesman, the man was shot in the stomach during a scuffle with an armed robber who entered his Pomona home with two other robbers at about 4am on Wednesday.

“His wife recounted how they heard sounds of people breaking into their home in the early hours of the morning,” said Mtshali.

The man got out of bed and went to the kitchen where the sounds came from and walked outside to check who was in their property.

“While he was outside, he must have come across the robbers and in an attempt to stop them from entering the home, a scuffle ensued. The wife heard a gunshot which sent her running to find her husband bleeding,” he continued.

The robbers fled the scene immediately and the police were alerted.

“The man was taken to Arwyp in a stable condition,” added Mtshali. – looklocal

Mozambicans found guilty

Two Mozambican criminals who terrorised homes in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, in 2009 have been convicted on four counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances, according to a report on Tuesday.

Eric Nkuna and Fortunato Simbine targeted townhouse complexes in the Noordheuwel area, frequently inflicting psychological and physical torture on their victims.

Nkuna was also found to have murdered Juan van Eeden, 28, at his townhouse complex, but there was insufficient evidence to link Simbine to the crime, Beeld newspaper reported.

In one incident, a family was held captive for hours, the mother was threatened with rape and the two daughters, who were seven and two respectively, were asked which of their parents should be shot first.

In a separate case, Simbine left a fingerprint at the scene of the crime after holding up Johan Potgieter at his home.

In another incident, a woman was choked, then beaten with a monkey wrench, before they stole her car.

Sentencing will take place later this week. – SAPA