Man held after spate of garage robberies

A TASK team has been set up to probe a spate of robberies at service stations across Port Elizabeth, with one arrest already made.

Since Wednesday, five service stations have been robbed, some within hours of each other.

Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge confirmed that a 37-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the latest heist at the Sasol garage in Nzunga Street, Motherwell, on Friday night.

“CCTV footage assisted detectives with tracking down and arresting one of the suspects,” he said.

The man was arrested at 3am on Sunday at his house in Motherwell.

Detectives are looking into the possibility of the man being connected to a larger group that could be involved with most of the service station robberies last week.

Only an hour before the Sasol garage was robbed, a gang of gunmen hit the Caltex garage in Struandale.

And at 7am on Friday, gunmen stormed the Engen Kwa Magxaki service station.

In a similar robbery on Thursday morning, a group of gunmen – believed to number between eight and 10 – robbed the Fernglen Service Station in Stella Londt Drive.

And on Wednesday afternoon, a gang of eight men used explosives to blow open a drop safe at the Caltex service station in Perseverance.

The suspect will appear in the Motherwell Magistrate’s Court today on a charge of armed robbery.