The Aroma Drop Inn liquor store in Mowbray was robbed twice recently.
There were five perpetrators in each case, but police only had sketchy descriptions of them and couldn’t confirm whether the same five men were behind both robberies.
Police said robbers hit the store, on the corner of Klipfontein and Raapenberg roads, late on Friday night, April 27, and into the early hours of the next morning, and then again just before noon on Sunday.
Captain Delven Matroos, of Mowbray SAPS, said the intruders broke through an office ceiling, cut the wires to the alarm and security cameras, stole the security-camera footage as well as a small safe containing
cash.
According to Jonathan Hobday, of the Mowbray Community Police Forum, the intruders also tried to steal bottles of liquor but were disturbed by a Little Mowbray Rosebank Improvement District (LMRID) patroller outside the store.
LMRID Neighbourhood Watch chairman, Nic Moult, said the patroller had spotted five men outside the store at 3.30am. They fled after firing a shot at him.
In the second robbery, a man went into the store posing as a customer then returned moments later with four other men, two of whom had guns.
Captain Matroos said the robbers threatened staff and forced a security guard, who was patrolling outside, into the shop. They took cigarettes, cash and liquor before fleeing in a VW Golf.
According to Mowbray police, these latest incidents bring to five the number of robberies at Aroma Drop Inn in the past five years.
The regional owner of Aroma Drop Inn declined to comment.
