Robbers seemed to have tied a chain to the metal security door of Mohammed Hassan’s shop in Du Noon, connected it to a truck and ripped the heavy metal security door open before helping themselves to R30 000 of stock on Tuesday night.Early on Wednesday morning Hassan, 42, got a call from his half-brother Yusuf Moalim, 29, that his shop had been robbed.

Hassan said when he got to his clothing store he found his door ripped out and only a handful of his goods left in the shop.

Moalim said he normally slept in the shop but it was fortunate that he spent Tuesday night with relatives in Bellville as he might have been shot or beaten by the robbers.

Moalim said he was awakened by a telephone call from the owner of the RDP house from which they operated the shop, and he then called Hassan.

Hassan said the thieves stole a variety range of designer clothes, shoes, suitcases and blankets worthy R30 000.

He said he was shocked that the thieves could be so brazen as to use a truck to pull the security gate open.
“The security gate is very strong. They must have used a truck to pull it open,” he said.

Although the owner of the RDP house from which Hassan runs his shop, Beauty Muleka, said she stays in a shack at the back of the property but didn’t hear anything during the night.

Muleka said she only discovered that the shop had been robbed at about 6:30am when she was on her way to the clinic.

She said she was startled to see the metal door wide open, at which point she called Moalim and broke the news.

Milnerton Police Colonel Cornel Sutherland confirmed the incident and said a case of robbery had been opened.
During the 2008 xenophobic attacks, Hassan said he lost stock worthy R80 000 and had to restart his business from a scratch.