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A recent spate of armed robberies during business hours at eateries and restaurants in Claremont have patrons and staff on high alert.

So far two incidents have been recorded at Oblivion, with another at the Village Bicycle which was struck last month.

Both are claiming that the crimes have correlated with the easing of lockdown restrictions.

According to IOL, the owner of Oblivion described the latest incident, which took place last week as “calm and controlled”. The robbers made off with cash and valuables from the restaurant and its patrons.

Comedian Eugene Mathews was in the restaurant at the time, telling The Daily Voice:

“Myself and five friends were sitting at the table and we had just put in our food orders and were having a few drinks,” he explains.

“Everything was going normal until the manager walked up to us and asked if we could please be quiet.

He initially thought that they were making too much noise, but then spotted a man with a gun.

“One of the guys then reached over the bar and took money from the register while the others went to each of the tables and took stuff like phones, laptops and they frisked some people to empty their wallets.

“When they came to our table they took phones, including my own. It was all done quietly with nobody shouting or anything like that.”

Oblivion staff handled the situation like champions, keeping patrons calm and ensuring that nobody was hurt.

Back to IOL for more from the owner of Oblivion, who said that while the police response time was fine, they need to up their game in terms of prevention.

“The police must be visible, and the CCTV cameras must be linked directly to a unit or a response team, and that could help a lot. And I don’t feel much more information was shared with the businesses.”

Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz says that Claremont has seen a rise in attacks on businesses, including kidnappings and extortion.

“We will ask the police to include the Claremont area into the scope of investigations on extortion. These attacks on businesses represent attacks on the livelihoods of many of our citizens, and we cannot allow criminals to continue with impunity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Claremont police station commander Maree Louw says that the attacks on businesses are sporadic.

“Some months we have one, and some we have two, and were not more than two in a month,” said Louw.

Louw suspects that the suspects aren’t from the area and are coming in from Hanover Park.

Investigations into the attack on Oblivion are underway.

[source:iol&dailyvoice]