Constable's bakery heist a flop

A police constable’s brazen bid to rob a bakery with a gang of men flopped when he was promptly arrested before they could reach their getaway vehicle.

The constable and three accomplices will appear before the Standerton Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga on a charge of business robbery on Monday.

Seven men armed with hand guns accosted a bakery owner and his wife who were cashing up at closing time on Saturday. The couple were robbed of cash and the robbers fled.

But they did not count on a spirited fightback by the victims.

“After the robbery‚ the owner chased the villains while his wife activated security measures to circumvent the suspects‚” said police Brigadier Leonard Hlathi in a statement.

“A swift response by the Kasselman Security Guards in collaboration with the police saw the immediate arrest of four of the perpetrators before they reached their getaway vehicle waiting close to the scene.

“It was during the arrest that the police discovered that one of the apprehended culprits is in actual fact a police official attached to the Charl Cilliers Police Station and his service pistol was also found in the getaway vehicle.”

Three of the robbers escaped but police were “optimistic that they shall be found soon”.

“I promise the public that the investigation team will make sure that we have a watertight case against the suspects so that they can languish in jail for a long time‚" said Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma‚ the Provincial Commissioner of Mpumalanga.

An internal investigation is under way against the constable.