Things can go wrong

Noordwyk father and son survive hijacking, kidnap nightmare after son returned from school
" What was meant to be a simple collect-and-drop-off for a Noordwyk father turned into a kidnapping nightmare. source: journalist Keba Mothoagae, The Noordwyk man had just arrived to drop off his son at their Ash Road residence  when a gunman confronted the two in their vehicle. "The suspected ordered them out of the vehicle before instructing the father and his son to get into the car's boot," said Midrand police spokesman Constable Matome Tlamela. "He asked the man for his car key to open the boot, which somehow did not open. He told the two to get into the back seat, with the son pleading to sit next to his father." Tlamela said anothr suspect appeared nearby and jumped into the front passenger seat, before the men drove off with their hostages, threatening death if they did not cooperate. "The driver dropped off father and son and placed under the watch of his accomplice at a house in Hampton Road, Glen Austin, and drove off in the hijacked vehicle, a silver Chevrolet SS Lumina. They had enquired about its tracking device. Not long after, the driver is said to have returned to where the hostages were being held, before picking up his accomplice and fleeing. The vehicle, along with a cellphone, iPod and bank cards were stolen. Police are investigating the matter.

The original plan was good.  The gunman ordered the father and son out of their car with intentions of locking them in the trunk (boot).  This would ensure that neither of the two victims would have time to study the gunman to be able to identify him later.  It would also ensure that that the two would not in anyway be able to interfere with the armed robbers.

Father finds son held at gunpoint



Fathers and sons make great targets

When you have decided to commit an armed robbery, it is very important to choose your victims.

An excellent target is a father and son.  Once you pull out the guns and announce the hold up, the two victims will pretty much do as you say.  The father won't try anything because he will be scared that you will hurt his son.  And the son won't do anything because he will be concerned about his father.

If one of them tries to get cleaver with you, lets say it is the father, all you need to do is point the gun at his sons head and he will immediately start doing what you tell him to do.

Father finds son held at gunpoint

BLUE HILLS- A house near Village Street in Blue Hills was broken into by armed men

According to Midrand police communications officer, Constable Matome Tlamela the victim was asleep when he was awoken by noises coming from his son’s room which was located down the passage.
Tlamela said the victim made his way to his son’s room and found two armed men holding his son at gunpoint.
The alleged suspects ordered the victim and his son to lie down on the floor and then tied them up with shoe laces.
Tlamela said the suspects managed to get away with goods valued at R33 000, including laptops and TVs.
Police are investigating.


As you can see this was a very successful hold-up.  But if you are going to do something like this you must remember you do not want to give your victim too much time to be able to see you as this could result in them being able to identify you at a later stage.

Once the two armed robbers had tied up the father and son they should have immediately stuffed them into a closet.  Ideally the robbers should have brought some duck tape with and taped the men's mouths shut.  This would prevent father and son trying to discuss any plans while you had them locked in the closet. 

As all this was happening in the son's room, one of the robbers could have opened his closet and ordered the two of them into the closet. 

If the lock was not very strong they could have moved furniture against the closet door like the son's bed would be great to keep the closet doors closed.

With the father and his son locked in the closet, their house is now yours and you can take your time looting their house taking everything you want.

Starting young Part 1

This is a serious of young kids who plan their armed robberies well and pull them off very successfully.  One could learn a lot from them.

The target was a bottle (liquor) store.

The robbers were a gang of 4 young black boys. I think their ages ranged from 11 to 12 or 13.
What I think makes this hold-up so awesome is that these black kids came from a poor black squatter camp not to mention their school education would be of a low quality. Yet despite this these kids were able to pull of some really successful hold-ups because they spent so much time planning them which is something most criminals (especial the young ones) don’t do.

Also holding up liquor stores was not their thing, they specialised in hijacking cars and cyclists.
This was the first store they held up. Why they did it I am not sure. Maybe they felt like a change or maybe they wanted to get some free alcohol. But despite it been their first they were very successful.
The chose a liquor store in a good position. Just opposite the road from the store was a field in which many kids would play. Because these kids were so young they could also pretend to be playing in the, for example they would bring a soccer ball and people would think they were playing soccer etc. When in actual fact they were observing the store. They would also take photos with their cell phones which would enable them to zoom in to get a closer look. Sometimes they would just casually walk past the entrance to the store to get a quick look in.

They would come at night when the store was closed and go and check out the back. Sometimes during the day they would walk to the back. From that they discovered that the back door would often get left unlooked at a certain time each day as the staff would bring boxes and stuff to trough away.
Just by studying the store they learnt it was owned by a man and his two sons, all of whom worked in the store.

They learnt that Saturdays was very busy with customers, too busy to have a successful hold-up. Mondays it was too quite. There would not be enough cash. Saturdays takings would have already have been banked. Friday would be the perfect day. There would be a lot of cash in the till and also the store was in a business district with quite a few offices around. Often business men would come in on Friday to buy beer etc. to drink with their friends while watching a game or something on Saturday. Robbing these customers would be a bonus.

One thing they did have trouble with was finding out about the layout inside the shop. The windows where painted over with alcohol adverts and they were too young to be allowed into the shop. The only way to see in was through the open front door.

They had to do a bit of research here, but it paid off as they were able to find out about the layout. It was a fairly sizable liquor store. It had a back room which was used as an office. in the back room was a store room.

They probably watched this store for about 2 to 3 weeks. That is a lot of planning for one job, but that is why they are so successful. They have patience, even at their young age.

When the Friday (day of the hold-up) arrived. The kids arrived at the field each caring a sports bag which carried a gun and a child’s super hero’s mask for example a Spiderman mask.

When they decided to hit the store there were 7 white men in the store. The owner, his two sons and 4 customers.
Two of the kids went to the back of the store, put on their masks where no one could see them, took out their guns and entered through the back door.
The two youngest black boys (both aged 11) put on their mask of Spiderman and I think Batman creating the impression that they were just playing thus not to arouse any suspicion. They walked into the store from the front and immediately closed the door and flipped the open sign to closed. At the same time the two black kids who came in from the back announced the hold-up. Each kid knew exactly what his role was. One kid went strait for the owner and ordered him to lock the front door. 
 
While this was happing the other three kids herded the 6 white men into the back room where no one walking past could see what was happing.
The first kid then forced the owner to join the rest of the men in the back room.

To make the men feel vulnerable and to reduce the chance of the men trying to fight back the kids ordered the men to strip naked then get on their knees with their hands on their heads. Once the men were naked two boys stood over the men with guns at the ready, while the other two took the men’s wallets out of their pants. As a boy took the wallet he ordered the respective man to reveal his bank pin number. The kids wrote the pin numbers down on a piece of paper and then stuck the paper in the respective wallet.
Once this was done one of the kids opened the store room door. The door had a dead bolt which could be padlocked. Unfortunately the store room was not very big, but fortunately it was just big enough to get 7 adult men into.
  
Once the store room door was open the kids ordered the men into the store room. When all the men where in the storeroom the boy who had opened it then slammed the door shut. bolted it and engaged the padlock.
With all the adult men securely locked in the store room the young kids could now relax and carry out their job with a lot more fun.
Two of them took the men’s wallets, went out the back door without masks to a near by bank of ATMs from which they started to draw money from the men’s accounts.

The other two went into the store, emptied the cash register, put the cash into their bags and also helped themselves to a great deal of liquor. They did not drink it while on the job. They put the bottles into their bags. They would drink some of it later and sell the rest.

They also went through the men’s clothes looking for car keys. Once they had the keys they put the clothes into their bag. Later they would retrieve cell phones and any other valuables from the clothes. Also some of the men’s shoes and stuff were quite expensive. These could be sold.
Once the kids had collected everything and the other two returned from the ATMs with all the men’s cash. The boys could start making a carful exit so as not to be noticed. One left by the back door. Because they had been watching the store they new where the men had parked their cars. They had already decided who would take which cars.
The kid went to the car that was assigned to him. With all the car keys he was able to select the right set of keys and open the car and put his loot in. He was also able to figure out which keys went with the other cars.
He then went back into the store via the back and handed the other sets of car keys to the other kids. He then started to take the rest of the bags and went out to load the car. To someone walking past he just looked like some kid putting stuff into a car. Nothing suspicious.

When he had finished loading the loot into the car which took about one minuet he was able to slip into the car and then drive off.
As for the other kids, they left the store individually so as not to cause any suspicion. Each went to one of the men’s cars that had been assigned to him, got in trough the passenger door, moved over and then drove off.
When the last kid left the store, he closed the back door and with the keys he had taken from the owner and locked it.
By the time the men were eventually rescued the kids were long gone. They had already disposed of the cars (remember they hijack cars on a regular basis so they new how to dispose of them quickly)
In fact the kids were most likely home counting out the money and celebrating their victory with some of the alcohol they had stolen.
I have tried to be as specific as possible because when planning a hold-up like this you need to plan every little detail. excuse these kids planed this one hold-up so well they made a small fortune. Not only did they get the cash from the till and the alcohol. They were also able to go to the ATM with the wallets of 7 men and draw plenty of cash from them. And they were able to get 4 cars. All of this was achieved from one hold-up and carried out in a short period.
Clearly for 4 young black kids aged 11 to 12 or 13 this is really awesome. Many could learn from them.
Their car hijacking and bike jacking are equally successful.

Almost a very successful bike jacking

This is very impressive, two robbers get eight men off their bikes.  This was almost a very successful bikejacking, I say almost because these two guys really missed out.  They could have taken so much more.  But I think it was nervousness on their part and just wanted to get it over and done with as quick as possible.   

Ideally once they got the men off their bikes they should have immediately liberated them from their cycling gear and clothes.  As 8 men are a lot for two guys to deal with they should also have ordered the 3 bikers to strip naked.  This would cause them to feel more vulnerable and thus less likely to do try something.

Once this was done the two bike jackers would tie the men up effectively with zip ties, both their wrists and ankles.  This would give the bike jackers more than enough time to get away

A group of five mountain bikers from the Cycle Lab and three others on motorbikes were hijacked on Saturday by two gun-wielding men.

"Before, we used to believe that riding in groups would protect us, but not any more," said one of the cyclists, Deon Cilliers.

He said the five members of the Cycle Lab were out riding in back roads at the far end of Kyalami, near the Gardener Ross Golf Estate towards Diepsloot.

Cilliers said they deliberately went to that area because it was not one of the "hijacking hot spots", where cyclists were known to be targeted by criminals.

The group were heading up a hill and three men on motorbikes went past them. "We crested the top of the hill and I saw one of the motorbike guys lying flat on his stomach with his bike parked on the side," said Cilliers. "A hijacker jumped out with a silver revolver and told us to lie down next to the motorbikers."

Another man came up behind them with a gun. They frisked their pockets, looking for cellphones, money and jewellery.

"They wanted the pin codes for the phones and tested them to see if they were real," Cilliers said. "They then took out some wire and bound our hands."

While the men were lying on the ground with one man watching them, the other pushed the bicycles away one by one, leaving the motorbikes behind. "One of the cyclists had a small, deformed hand and was able to free himself and untie everyone else," said Cilliers.

He said he was riding his training bicycle and his R15 000 bike was the cheapest in the group. "The other bikes were between R60 000 and R80 000 each. The one was unique to South Africa... the parts are all imported."

One of the team was offering a R10 000 reward to anyone in the community who came forward with information that would lead to the arrest of the hijackers, said Cilliers. They would also pay for a vehicle for the Erasmia Police Station if they found those involved.

We Just Robbed your Husband

 

An interesting news article

'We just robbed your husband'

Wilhelm de Swardt

 

Pretoria - Two armed men called a victim's wife and friends from his cellphone and bragged about their robbery.

 After robbing Archie Holtzhausen and his son Wouter, 17, of their mountain bikes and cellphones in Centurion, they called his wife on his cellphone. "We've just robbed your white motherfucker husband and son of their mountain bikes," one of the robbers apparently bragged to Albie Holtzhausen.  The two robbers also called Holtzhausen's friends and in good Afrikaans bragged about their successful robbery.  Holtzhausen said he and Wouter were cycling on an open field outside Centurion about 13:00 on Monday. The trouble started when they turned back towards Blue Valley Golf Estate. "We noticed the two men next to the road, but thought nothing of it. One of them had a potato bag with him. "The next moment, the man suddenly took out an AK-47 rifle from the potato bag and shouted at us: 'Get off, get off your bicycles!," said Holtzhausen.  "We were hardly off our bikes when the robber put the AK-47 against my head, while the other one put a knife to Wouter's throat."  Wouter said he had pepper spray with him. "I was on the verge of using it, but then noticed the gun to my father's head and realised it would be a mistake. "They would've killed him," said Wouter. "When the robbers saw the pepper spray, they nearly went berserk. "The ordered us to lie facedown on the ground. They wanted us to remove our helmets and cycling shoes without using our hands. "One of the robbers stood on my back and then ripped off my shoes," said Wouter. "I started praying out loud. I believe it must've helped, because the robbers calmed down a bit. "Then they suddenly said: 'Get up and go'. "According to Holtzhausen, he firmly believed they would be shot in the back while running away. "I just couldn't run. The spirit was willing, but the body unable. I kept stumbling. It must have been pure fear."

My own comments

Targeting cyclists can be very rewarding as these kinds of bikes are extremely expensive.  However often these bikejackers miss out on a large bonus i.e. the cyclists gear and clothes. 
What was impressive in this case is that they not only helped themselves to the bikes but also to the guys cycling shoes and helmets which are also very expensive. 

Though, I think these guys sold themselves a bit short.  Cycling shorts and vests are also extremely expense.

This hold up took place in a quite area, they would have had more than enough time to liberate both father and son of their shorts and vests.

Also, ordering father and son to just walk away could have been dealt with better.  Ideally they should have tied them up, they would then have had plenty of time to make their escape.
 

Strange store hold-up

Forcing your victims to strip naked during an armed robber certainly has its advantages in  that the victims feel more vulnerable and are less likely to try anything funny, as well as less likely to come after you once you have made your get away, not to mention you can go through their clothes for valuables. 

This been said I am not quite sure what these robbers where trying to prove by doing half a job?

7 men forced to undress in armed robbery
(Morris News Service)

Seven men were robbed and forced to undress when crooks held up an Augusta convenience store this past weekend.

According to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office incident report, three men -- one who was masked and armed -- entered J.R.’s Stop and Shop, located on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Augusta, around 8:30 p.m. Saturday and demanded the business owner and six customers remove and hand over their pants.

The gunman told the victims “Don’t make me make this a homicide,” according to the report.
The robber then told the victims, who ranged in age from 44 to 80, to hand over their jewellery and money and instructed the store owner to empty the register.

After robbing the customers and store, Police said the crooks left in two of the victim’s vehicles, a 1998 Lincoln Towncar and a 1993 Buick Century.
According to the incident report, the bandits made off with nearly $3,500, cell phones, and various pieces of jewellery.

Police located the vehicles shortly after the incident was reported. The Buick was found on Dunns Lane. The Lincoln was found at the intersection of Swanee Quintet Boulevard and Steiner Avenue with all of the men’s pants inside. The pants were returned to the owners, according to the report.

An arrest has not been made in the robbery.

Home invastion advice

One of the big issues faced with any self respecting home invader is, what do you do with the home owner while you are looting his home?

Well here is a news paper report from Metro showing a really ingenious idea.


"A man in South Africa was robbed by armed thieves who broke into his house €“and then stripped him naked and superglued him to his exercise bike.
The man was forced to look on, helpless, at the burglars as they ransacked his house, and helped themselves to his finest Chivas Regal Scotch whisky while they were at it.

The men were  smartly dressed in suits and€“ kidnapped the man in an affluent Johannesburg suburb, and forced him to take them to his house. Once there, they made him strip, then superglued him to the seat of the exercise bike. They also superglued his hands and feet, and “ just to make sure they€“ superglued his mouth shut as well.
The man was only discovered when his partner arrived home several hours later. He was eventually removed from the exercise bike by emergency services, using a mixture of chemicals and Vaseline"

The Australian media reported as:

"A South African man was stripped and superglued to his exercise bicycle and his mouth glued shut for hours by armed robbers who ransacked his home and helped themselves to his finest Scotch whisky.

The man was hijacked at gunpoint in a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg and forced to lead the thieves to his home in another area, a spokesman for the emergency services told the SAPA news agency.

He was forced to strip before being superglued to the seat of his exercise bicycle. His hands and feet were also glued and his mouth sealed shut, the spokesman said.
The robbers wore suits and reportedly helped themselves to the victim's Chivas Regal Scotch whisky while cleaning out his home."










 

Never too young - pre-teens hold up ice cream truck

"SAN DIEGO - An ice cream truck driver robbed at gunpoint by three boys told 10News he gave them two days' worth of profits rather than risking harm.

Hugo Sanchez owns CU-CU's Ice Cream, which often does business in the Skyline area. On Thursday evening, as he was behind the wheel of his truck, he said three pre-teen boys approached him. One of the boys held a gun to his head and ordered him to hand over his money.

Sanchez said he handed over the cash, and as the boys ran off in one direction, he took off going the opposite way. Sanchez was not injured.

Sanchez said he recognized the boy who held the gun as the same one who hit his truck with a rock a while back.

Police believe the boys suspected in the robbery live in the neighborhood near Black Oak Road and Meadowbrook Drive.

"It's pretty brazen for that to happen period, especially with an ice cream truck," said Huey Mitchell, who lives nearby.

"I mean that's really crazy," said Cristin Martinez, shaking his head. "How much money could an ice cream truck have in the first place?""

I agree these kids most likely did not get much cash.  They could have tied the guy up and then at least they could have helped themselves to as much ice cream as they wanted.

If you are going to commit armed robbery you should at least make it worth your while.

How to hijack a car

When hijacking a car you want to do this in a place where there will be no witnesses.  Typically most hijackings happen in public areas where there are many people who witness what you have done and are ale to both contact the cops and give them a description.

The ideal situation is to do it where there are no witnesses.  Also you need to ensure that your victim is unable to contact the cops until you are long gone.

Select a parking lot where there are many cars to choose from but not many people around.  Perhaps a golf club.  The advantage here is that when the guy gets back to his car he has most likely just played a round of golf or had a few drinks with his buddies and is not expecting to be targeted.

Find the car that you want and then wait for the owner.  You need to make sure that you are not looking suspicious.  if possible hide behind bushes or alternatively pretend to be a gardener. 

When the owner returns to his car he will most likely have his golf bag with him which he will want to put in his trunk  Wait for him to open the trunk.  View the parking area to make sure that there are no witnesses.  If there are none walk up to the guy, stick the gun in his face and then order him into the trunk.  It is important to lock him in the trunk as quick as possible so no one will know what you are doing.  You can take the gulf bags from him and leave them in the back seat of his car.  You can help yourself to them later if you are interested. 

Of course it could happen that the car owner comes out with some of his friends.  If this happens you do not want them as witness.  Hold them all up with the gun and order them all into the car trunk as quick as possible.

Once your victim is locked in his car trunk, get into the car and casually drive out of the parking lot.  You should drive out of town.  Not too far but far enough from civilisation where you can leave your victim.

You should find a place off the road.  Once there, stop the car and let your victim out of the trunk.  Order him to strip naked.  The advantage of this is that he will feel more vulnerable which will make it less likely he will try and attack you or go for help.  Also you will be able to go through his clothes later to look for his wallet, cell phone and other valuable when you are in a safe location.

Using zip locks which you should have brought with you bind his wrists and ankles.  If necessary use duck tape to gag him.  The ideal would be to tie him to a tree so he cant get away.

Once your victim is secured, get into his car and drive away.  By the time he is able to raise the alarm you would be long gone. In addition to his car you would also have his wallet, cell phone, shoes (some guys shoes are very expensive) and golf clubs which you could sell for some extra cash.