A father from Durbanville was robbed at gunpoint, with shots being fired, in the drive-through of McDonald’s in the area on Saturday evening, while the car window of another customer was smashed also in an attempt to rob her.
A resident anonymously posted on the Facebook group Durbanville/Northern Suburbs Mammas/Moms that her husband and their young son were at McDonald’s in New Street in Durbanville around 19:00 when the incident occurred. While her husband was busy ordering meals through his open window in the drive-thru he was approached by a man.
“He thought at first it was a homeless person, but the next moment the person stood at his window and hit him with a firearm (revolver ) in the face. He said it happened so fast and he did not expect a firearm. He tried to get away from the man and tried to drive on but another man came and grabbed his arm.”
Shots fired
“He was hit again and some shots were fired. He has no idea how many, what they said or whether they spoke Afrikaans or English, but they demanded his wallet and phone. He gave it to them and told our son to keep on lying flat in the back of the car.
“They also tried to attack the people in the car in front of my husband, but they could get away. My husband had to reverse out of the drive-thru to get away as he was not sure where they were. They were two of three men. My husband then went to Durbanville Police Station to lay a charge.”
Tetanus injection
“McDonald’s did not even phone the police to inform them of the incident. We went to the hospital where my husband had to get a tetanus (lockjaw) injection. His face was cleaned and he received a stitch in his lip. It could have been so much worse, for which we are very thankful.”
According to a later post the robbers managed to use her husband’s bank card to almost the limit of R500 before he managed to stop his cards.
On another post a resident wrote her mother-in-law had also almost been robbed in the drive-through the same night, about 18:40, at the same McDonald’s. “Her window was smashed, but she could get away.”
McDonald’s Durbanville could not refer TygerBurger to the company’s media office for enquiries about the incident and safety of customers, and requested that the paper phone back later for contact details, but afterwards the line was engaged for hours. When it was finally answered, TygerBurger was told the security officer had been inside the restaurant at the time of the incident, but someone from the store will call back. Nobody did by the time of publication. TygerBurger logged a complaint on the website of McDonald’s, but had not received any feedback yet.
Robbery with firearm
Sergeant Wesley Twigg, provincial media liaison officer, confirmed the Durbanville police were investigating an armed robbery following the incident on Saturday 28 June.
“A 42-year-old man ordered food in the drive-through,” he said. “The victim was approached by an unknown suspect who hit him in his face with a firearm and robbed him of his personal belongings before fleeing the scene.”
Smash a window
In the other incident a woman was at the drive-through when three men approached her vehicle and tried to open her doors.
“One of them smashed a window and demanded her handbag and cell phone. She told them that she doesn’t have anything on her, pressed the hooter and managed to drive off,” says Colonel Gonum Munsamy, station commander of Durbanville police.
Nobody has yet been arrested in connection with the incidents, she says.
Anyone with any information about the incidents can contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or use the mobile application MySAPS anonymously.
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