Mere minutes before the Giftland Mall was about to close last evening, two armed men stormed the establishment and robbed the GT&T outlet there of $13.4M in cash and cheques totalling $6M.
The robbery occurred about 21:45 hrs by two unidentifiable males, both armed with handguns and disguised in the attire used by the private security service that usually uplifts money from the outlet when it closes.
Investigations revealed that the GT&T outlet is a booth located on the second floor of Giftland Mall to the northern side of the food court. Same has a counter with a walk way to enter the mall and a wood door which gives access to the supervisors room and another door to the northern side to exit the mall from the back.
According to a 27 year-old employee (supervisor) of GT&T, two ‘Security officers’ from the private security firm would normally uplift cash at nights on completion of their tour of duty. On the date and time mentioned, the employee said that herself along with five other staff members were on duty at the GTT booth, when the two suspects, wearing face masks fully dressed in the said security uniforms, approached her and checked the bags with the cash as per normal.
One of the suspects then went outside to the other staff members and brandished a hand gun at them. They were instructed to ‘get on the floor’ to which they complied. The other suspect who was in the supervisor’s room took out a hand gun from his waist and told the supervisor to go on the floor, which she did.
The suspects placed duct tape on the hands and mouths of the GTT staffers and locked them in the booth. The perpetrators then took the said cash mentioned, exited through a back door, made their way into the Giftland parking lot and entered a white old model Raum (number unknown) and made good their escape heading east on the Railway Embankment.
A short while after, the staff members managed to free themselves and an alarm was raised and the cops were called in.
Several persons were questioned and statements taken. Investigations into the matter are ongoing.
