Taxidermist kills robbers

2010-08-24 19:07

Johannesburg - Two men were shot dead by the owner of a taxidermy business after they robbed him in Randfontein, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

"The 36-year-old male business owner that had been tied up along with workers this morning, managed to free himself and ran outside to where the men were leaving the house with money they had stolen," police spokesperson Captain Appel Ernst said.

"Shots were fired and the owner killed two robbers with his own rifle."

One of the men was on the list of the 10 most wanted criminals in the West Rand, for house robbery.

Before being shot at about 10:30, the robbers had tried to escape in a car belonging to a taxidermy client, accompanied by two men waiting in a car on the opposite side of the road. They were all in their early thirties.

A policeman who lived a block away from the house heard the shots and ran to the scene, where he arrested two of the men.

Police recovered money and computer equipment from the client's car, as well as five firearms on the scene.

Charges of house robbery were being investigated and the men were expected to appear in the Randfontein Magistrate's Court soon.

The car that the alleged robbers used to drive to the business was linked to another house robbery on Tuesday morning in Noordheuwel, also on the West Rand.

In this robbery, four men had overpowered a woman at her friend's house and stolen a computer, money and a firearm.

No charges were laid against the business owner.

- SAPA