|
Tip-off prevents mall robbery
07/11/2005 08:11 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A tip-off that led to the discovery of a stolen vehicle and four automatic rifles with 400 rounds of ammunition has prevented a major robbery at an up-market Johannesburg shopping mall, Johannesburg police said on Sunday evening.
Spokesperson Superintendent Chris Wilken said the police's North West intervention unit received a tip-off around 14:00 on Sunday about a planned robbery at a shopping mall or a possible cash-in-transit heist.
Upon investigation police found a silver-blue BMW 5-series parked in Tyrwhitt Street, Rosebank, near the Rosebank Mall.
The car was kept under surveilance for the rest of the afternoon and around 19:00, when most of the shoppers had gone home, the police moved in.
In the car they found three AK-47s, a Vektor R6 and 400 rounds of ammunition for the rifles.
Major breakthrough
Wilken said the R6 was stolen in August from a security company in the Nelspruit area in Mpumalanga.
The BMW was stolen in Booysens in September.
Wilken said he believed a major robbery had been prevented.
"Rosebank Mall is very busy on a Sunday," he said. "If there had been a shooting today, it would have been chaos. We believe this is a major breakthrough."
Wilken said the rifles would be sent for ballistic testing to establish if they had been used in any recent robberies.
- SAPA
|
News
