No cash for robbers after drop safe blast

THE reinforced door of a drop safe was blown off its hinges at a service station in KwaNobuhle shortly after midnight yesterday.

This is the second incident in two weeks in which robbers have used explosives to open drop safes at Nelson Mandela Bay petrol stations.

This time, instead of making off with the weekend’s takings, the group of three left empty-handed – the money had already been collected.

The explosion was so powerful that the safe door landed several metres away.

Drop safes are used by cash-in-transit officials to collect money during pickups. The keys to such safes are usually not kept on site.

A car battery placed outside the shop is believed to have been used as the detonator.

Police spokesman Captain Gerda Swart said two of the three robbers posed as customers before the attack.

“The robbers arrived in a car. Two went into the 24-hour shop while the third remained outside.

“The two inside posed as customers and kept the teller occupied while the third man placed explosives on the safe door [outside the shop],” she said.

“A wire was then run outside the shop from the safe door and connected to a detonator.”

The explosive went off, but the three men found the safe empty and then fled in a white car.

Two weeks ago, a gang of robbers entered Zwide’s Koyana Street Caltex shop at about 2.30am, detonated an explosive and then fled the station.

Swart said detectives would investigate whether both incidents were linked to a single gang.