Police commander slams lack of business security in post office robbery

In a whirlwind weekend, two youngsters in the Eastern Cape stole R100 000 in a Post Office robbery on Friday, were arrested on Saturday, the money recovered by Sunday, and the pair were sentenced to 12 months in jail on Monday.

Swift justice in post office robbery

The South African justice system did not waste any time in the case of Donovan Ferreira, 18, and Elroy Kleinhaus, 22, as reported by RNews.

The pair were accused of lifting a set of keys to the Patterson Post Office from Ferreira’s parents’ bedroom on Friday.

They set off for the business premises where they used the keys to steal a bag containing around R100 000 out of the safe.

It was reported early on Saturday morning and the pair were swiftly rounded up by police. They quickly admitted to the crime and were sentenced to 12 months in jail by the end of Monday.

All of the cash was also recovered.

“After the case was reported to Paterson police on Saturday morning, swift police follow up investigation led to the arrest of the two suspects later the same day at about 16:00,” said police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge, according to RNews.

“From the investigation, it was established that Ferreira is the son of a post office employee, who was in possession of the keys to the post office.

“On Friday night, he and his friend stole the post office keys from his parents’ room at 22h00 and then went to the post office to steal the money.”

Police commander in disbelief

While it is amazing the post office robbery case was solved so quickly and the money returned, Motherwell Cluster police commander Major General Dawie Rabie was absolutely stunned the crime was so easy for the boys to commit.

“We cannot believe that all the keys and alarm codes to business premises keeping large sums of money are kept by only one person. Such a negligent situation is dangerous even to the life of that person due to possibilities of abductions and robberies,” he said.

“We urge our business fraternity to re-evaluate their security systems and procedures, such as keys and key keepers, alarm codes and setting off alarms and related routines, to prevent an incident like this from repeating itself.”