A visibly shocked and traumatised employee of Pyramid Jewellers in the North Cape Mall relayed the events that unfolded during an armed robbery that took place at the Kimberley business on Tuesday.
A VISIBLY shocked and traumatised employee of Pyramid Jewellers in the North Cape Mall relayed the events that unfolded during an armed robbery that took place at the Kimberley business on Tuesday.
According to the teary-eyed employee, three men entered the store at around 11am.
She said it appeared as if they knew the layout of the store and one of the men wanted the store assistants to see that he was armed.
“The men walked in and we were under the impression that they were customers. We were four employees inside the store. The one man then demanded that we hand over our panic buttons. Another one told us to fill a bag with jewels. One of them cocked a gun and it was as if he wanted us to know that they were armed. They all had guns on them,” the employee said.
“After taking all the jewellery, they walked out. It all happened so suddenly and fast. They walked out with two tog bags filled with jewels. We only managed to alert the security and people inside the mall once the incident was over and the men were running out of the mall and had taken everything.”
The suspects fled from the mall premises and apparently fired a “warning shot” into the air with an AK47.
According to eyewitnesses in the mall during the incident, “nobody suspected anything” while the three men were inside the jewellery store.
“The men entered the store and were inside with the shop assistant. It appeared as if the men were looking at the jewellery and keeping the shop assistant busy … That was clearly a ploy to distract her,” a witnesses said.
“The first man walked out calmly and another one followed shortly after. The third one followed shortly after the second. None of the men wore any masks or covered their faces. It was only after the shop assistant ran out of the store and screamed at people to call the police that the men started running out of the mall to the parking area.”
Several witnesses in the parking area said they were startled by a gunshot going off.
“We heard the commotion outside and saw the mall security chasing after the men. The next moment there was a loud gunshot. The men drove off speedily in a white vehicle. The mall security was unable to apprehend any of the men,” they said.
Witnesses also reported seeing a man seated in a white car parked in the mall parking area with an AK47 lying next to him on the passenger seat.
“There was a white Toyota Atos parked in the parking lot and one could see the AK47 lying on the passenger seat of the car. There was a man sitting behind the steering wheel. It was not clear whether there were any other people inside the car,” they said.
The witnesses said that they were shocked to hear of the robbery incident just moments after having seen the assault rifle inside the car.
“It all makes sense now. The men sped off in a white vehicle after firing a warning shot into the air … and the AK47 was inside the white vehicle.”
The store employee and witnesses said that they were glad that no one was injured or killed during the incident.
“Although what happened is shocking, one is happy that no lives were lost.”
Mall management was not available at the time to provide comment.
