Dramatic scenes unfolded outside the Gonubie SuperSpar on Thursday when security guards, with some help from the public, foiled four suspected ATM robbers.
The gang of four fled the scene, but not before their rented car crashed into a Gonubie complex wall.
They escaped by running into nearby bush.
Store owner and Western Gruppe director Nigel Connellan said the card scammers fled empty-handed following a scuffle with security guards.
The men were caught on CCTV cameras being thwarted by vigilant guards who saw them trying to defraud an elderly Gonubie man at the ATM.
“At 9.30am our guards spotted the suspects and chased them to their rental car. Our guards used pepper spray when the men were inside the car and tried to drag the suspects out of the vehicle,” Connellan said.
He said one guard held on to the driver’s door to prevent the robber from closing it but the Yaris, which had GP licence plates, took off, with the guard almost ripping the door off its hinges.
The suspects raced from the parking lot before making their way into the main road at high speed towards Gullsway, and crashed the car into a wall at an adjacent complex.
“The pepper spray really got them, I am sure they could not see clearly after that,” said Connellan.
East London police spokesperson Captain Hazel Mqala said police were investigating robbery.
She said the gang attacked an ATM user, grabbing his card.
Customers had also come to the person’s aid and tried to pursue the robbers, she said.
In September the Dispatch reported on an elaborate card scam by a syndicate who defrauded tourists and the elderly at ATMs outside supermarkets.
Australian tourist Mark Hunter, 59, and his wife Pauline were defrauded of R96,000 through the card cloning scheme in Mthatha...