An Olivine Street business owner was shocked when three brazen thugs attempted to rob his Laudium video shop, in broad daylight.
According to Ghulam Husain Satti (43), three thugs jumped out of a white Mercedes Benz that was parked to the right of his store, Husain's Video Shop (next to Yaseen’s Superette) and strolled in. The shop owner recalled to the Laudium Sun, “The thugs were well dressed. One was wearing a green t-shirt and blue jeans; and the other was wearing a light blue t-shirt and jeans. There was a woman with them dressed in a black t-shirt and blue jeans, they appeared to be in their 30’s,” Husain said.
“I noticed that they were looking around suspiciously, but there was a customer in the shop. They waited for the customer to leave, and immediately one of them went to the door to see if anyone else was coming into the shop. That really raised my suspicions. I asked if I could help them with something, and they said they were from Tanzania and wanted to buy stock of Indian DVDs. Something just didn’t feel right. Suddenly I noticed that both the males had firearms. One of them was in the corner of the shop looking at my cell phone while the other one was trying to distract me by asking me funny questions. By then I was certain that they were trying to pull something. I told the hoodlum in the corner to leave my phone alone. I then took my flick knife out. When the thug who was questioning me noticed this, he took off, running out the shop. Just then, the female accomplice ran past me toward the door. Instinctively I lunged forward and grabbed her purse from her, hoping that there would be some useful information in there, that I could hand over to the police. The trio ran to their car, jumped in and fled the scene, with screeching tyres.” Husain exclaimed.
When the Laudium Sun asked Husain if there was any security at the centre, Shameem Centre (corner Olivine Str and 10th Ave), he said that there was a private security guard on the premises, but he had been on the other side at the time. Husain added that someone had called Z & Z Patrollers but they arrived too late, long after the would-be-robbers had fled. “I don't know who called them, maybe it was the customer who was in my store earlier. Anyway, they responded too late. I don't know how these criminals can be so forward as to come in during the day and try to commit a crime, knowing there is security in the vicinity. I am just really glad that they did not take anything or harm me. There is CCTV footage of the thugs fleeing the scene. The registration number of the white Mercedes Benz is PGG974 GP,” said Husain.
Husain added that he was upset after seeing a post on social media by Z & Z Patrollers indicating that they believed that there was no point going to the scene of the crime. “How could they say they’d rather go out and search for the criminals as it was already 10 minutes later. In which direction would they have gone? How do we even know that they were out on the road at the time because when they did eventually come, they could not tell us where they had been, in search of the criminals.”
3 brazen criminals walked into Ghulam Husain Satti’s video shop, on Olivine Street.
Arshaad Osman (Goaty) of Z &Z Patrollers could not say where he searched for the thugs.
CCTV footage of the thugs fleeing the scene, to their white Mercedes.