Gang storms bank with bags of stones in aborted robbery

Commander Kova displays bags filled with stones found at Stanbic Bank Kariakoo branch which the suspected robbers left behind,(PHOTO - SALIM SHAO).

  

By Henry Mwangonde, The Citizen Correspondent

• The robbers posed as wealthy clients with a huge amount of money that they wanted to bank in a wicked move to rob the Stanbic bank branch in Kariakoo before the plot blew up

Dar es Salaam. Attempts by armed robbers to fool bank employees using black bags filled with stones backfired on Sunday when a hawk-eyed staffer blew the whistle on them.

The robbers posed as wealthy clients with a huge amount of money that they wanted to bank in a wicked move to rob the Stanbic bank branch in Kariakoo before the plot blew up.

They were, however, lucky to escape a police dragnet and are now being hunted down. Yesterday, the Dar es Salaam Special Zone police commissioner Suleiman Kova narrated to journalists the drama that unfolded inside the bank.

He denied social media reports that on the material day the robbers escaped with Sh70million. “They did not steal anything but grabbed a small unknown amount of money from a customer who was being served at the counter,” Kova said.

He said the robbers arrived at the bank located at Swahili street in a vehicle and three of them entered the bank pretending to be customers who would like to deposit a huge amount of money in bags.

He added that the security man at the bank assisted them to carry one of the bags into the bank but upon entry they tried to force entry to the secret room, saying they had a large amount of money to deposit. “They refused to use the counters arguing there was no way they could do that for their own security and that of their ‘money.’

The regional police boss narrated that in the ensuing exchange of words between the robbers and staff at the bank it was suspected that they were not normal customers and that was when a security alarm was pressed.

“Upon hearing the alarm the robbers started running out of the bank due to the loud sound outside, leaving their bags behind. One of them went to the teller’s window and snatched cash from a customer who was about to make a deposit,” he said.

Outside the bank the robbers started spraying bullets aimlessly to scare people who were surrounding the bank as they made their escape and left their bags behind.

The bags were then searched and they were found filled with concrete stones which the police said were meant to cheat the bank’s security men.

This is the second bank robbery incident this year as in April more than Sh500 million was stolen at Barclays Bank Kinondoni branch.

In three other incidents - one at the end of last year and two early this year - armed robbers have made off with a total of Sh1.45 billion from three different banks