Wild West heist at casino
Daring pre-dawn robbery as 8 gunmen raid Gold Reef CityMarch 11, 2005 Edition 2
By Staff Reporters
Eight men armed with AK-47s sprayed the inside of a Gold Reef City casino with bullets before making off with cash in a daring pre-dawn raid this morning.
A massive manhunt has been launched for the gang which escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash early today, despite being chased by police from the Mondeor and Booysens stations.
The gunmen stormed the casino through the Privé casino entrance at about 4.15am and fired shots randomly in the building.
They reportedly grabbed a trolley with money and fired off more rounds as they fled.
It is believed the group left the scene in a blue bakkie, but this could not be confirmed at the time of going to press.
No one was injured in the incident, which lasted a few minutes.
Marketing manger of Gold Reef, City Claudia Crooney, said casino staff were receiving trauma counselling following the attack.
A security guard who witnessed the incident told 702 Talk Radio how the gunmen struck.
She described how the gunmen fired off warning shots after they walked into the building.
She hid under the counter as more shots echoed in the Privé casino before the robbers left.
Punters in other parts of the casino were unaware of the robbery.
Immediately after the incident, police cordoned off the area and
began to view security tapes.
They also instructed casino staff not to speak to the media about the incident because investigations were at a sensitive stage.
Not since 2001 has there been such a brazen heist at one of
Gauteng casinos.
In February of that year, 23 men armed with AK-47s, handguns and hammers burst into Montecasino at Fourways and sprayed the place with bullets before making off with a huge amount of jewels and cash.
Witnesses to the robbery described being forced to lie down for almost 10 minutes while the armed men went on a window-breaking, store-to-store rampage.
At least three jewellery shops were cleaned out.
The robbers made off with the loot in luxury cars and a hijacked 4x4.
After what Montecasino's general manager Gavin Rimmer at the time described it as "a well-planned operation carried out with military precision", security was beefed up at the Fourways resort.
In September 2001, police scored a victory against casino robbers. Three armed robbers were killed and three others arrested during a botched armed robbery at the Emerald Casino in Vereeniging.
Two of the robbers died on the scene while a third, who was shot in the head, was certified dead on arrival at hospital.
The cash was later recovered.
In December 2001, a gang of robbers held up cashiers and got away with R1,6-million from the Carousel resort, north of Pretoria in a pre-dawn raid.
Three days later, the casino was the scene of a cash-in-transit heist.
A gang of more than 10 people using six different vehicles got away with an undisclosed amount of money.
Two security guards were killed in the attack.
