Update
MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Mossel Bay woman has recounted the terror of being a customer in a shop during an armed robbery on Friday, 3 December.
The crime took place at Joy Sky Home, a Chinese shop in the row of shops next to Mikeva supermarket on Louis Fourie Road in Mossel Bay.
The shop is across the road from the suburb, Heiderand, and diagonally opposite the Mosselbaai Mall.
At about 11:00 five armed men entered Joy Sky Home and held up staff and customers.
The woman, who asked that her name not be published for fear one of the robbers might see it in the newspaper, had gone into the shop to look for Christmas lights.
She said: "I was just about to leave when I saw something strange: a Chinese woman going past me with a man behind her, holding a gun. She was very afraid. It hit me what was happening. I aimed for the exit of the shop. But another man was blocking the doorway and holding a gun. He said: 'Hey, jy go back.'"
The woman said: "I went to stand between the aisles and another man, holding a gun, asked me where my cellphone was. I said I didn't have a cellphone. He said I should go and stand with the others at the back of the shop.
"I threw my handbag and car keys to the side of the aisle and went to join the others. He came towards us; we were five women."
She said: "I think there were more customers in the shop, but there were five that I could see at the time."
'We fell and lay on floor'
The robber told them to lie down. "We fell and lay on the floor," the woman said.
"He then asked everyone for their cellphones.
"Another woman was hit on her arm for not listening to him. I was praying in my mind. Another woman prayed aloud: 'God help us to get out of here,' and the man shouted to her to keep quiet.
"After five or 10 minutes, a young man came inside the shop and asked why we were all lying on the floor.
"We got up. I went in search of my handbag and car keys, found them in the same place I had thrown them and fled the shop.
"I am still traumatised by all of this, really. I was born and bred in Mossel Bay. It's no longer a safe place if you cannot enter a shop without fearing for your life."
When asked if she had spoken to the police, she said: "No, I just wanted to get away from the area as fast as possible. I'm afraid of going into a shop now."
She said she had been robbed before. She was working in a township in Knysna when she was threatened with a knife and robbed of her computer tablet. She was also robbed of a tablet while in her car.
Fled on foot
Da Gamaskop Police Station spokesperson Captain Wollie Fourie said the robbers fled on foot with cellphones and an undisclosed amount of cash.
The robbers, wearing bandannas as masks, were aged about 30. They were wearing blue overalls with reflective strips on them except for one of them, who was in casual clothes.
They are being sought by police. Anyone with information is asked to call Warrant Officer Deon Louw (044 606 2200 or 082 522 1679).
He is the investigating officer for this case at the Da Gamaskop Police. Fourie said it was a usual trend that there was an increase in robberies in December.
He advised shop owners to vary their routines in terms of cashing up and have their own armed security guard at their premises.
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