KNYSNA NEWS - "God helped me," says Joe Boshoff of Liquer Guys on Long Street. He is convinced that had he not remained calm and cooperative, an armed robbery which took place on Sunday, January 12, may have turned out very differently.

"It's been ten years since I had a gun pointed at my head! And even though I have never quite got over the first time I was held up in Plett in another armed robbery in a store there, it prepared me in some ways to cope when I found myself and and my staff being held up once again!"

Boshoff says he noticed two Xhosa guys walking into the store at around 12:45 on Sunday, just before closing time.
"It was quiet. Luckily there were no other customers around. Something about them just made me notice them," he recalls.
He was still watching the first two men when two of their accomplices stormed in and immediately closed the store's doors behind them.

"All four wore black stockings over their faces and pulled out revolvers - they were shouting 'Where's the money? Where's the money?'."

From experience Boshoff knew not to look directly at their faces and ordered his staff to lie down and cooperate.
One of the attackers grabbed a staff member, Angus Wildeman, and dragged him to the back of the store. At the same time, a tall man and a short man entered the office and demanded money from Boshoff who was sitting behind his desk.

"The taller one just wanted to shoot and was clearly trigger happy. I begged them for mercy, thinking about my little girl and I began getting a tight pain across my chest. The shorter one seemed more sympathetic and I kept feeling that I had to think how to keep their level of aggression and agitation down and how to get us all out alive!" Boshoff shakes his head in disbelief.

"Where's the girl that works here?" demanded one of the armed men. He also demanded money which he insisted was being kept in the drawers of another desk.

"I told him we didn't keep money there and that he could check it himself, but the way he was speaking made me think that this guy had been in our office before? And why would he ask for one of my staff members?"

In the meantime, the armed robber who had dragged and kicked Wildeman was filling a huge plastic bag with the most expensive alcohol he could lay his hands on. The men in the office were gathering pieces of wire to tie Boshoff and his staff up with.
Just as the attackers were about to flee, everyone was startled when they heard a customer at the door demanding to be let in and wanting to know why the doors were closed already.

"I had to think quickly. I knew that if they opened those doors that customer was sure to get a bullet, so I suggested to them that we should open up a side door and they could leave through that - and they did."

Boshoff only later discovered that the alarm button to alert the shop's security company, which he had stuck close to his desk, had been removed.

"I don't remember seeing anyone taking it, but the two in the office had filled a bag with cellphones and whatever they could grab. I'm almost convinced they saw the panic button and ripped it off before I could think of using it."

As soon as the criminals had fled, Boshoff opened the front door to find a long-time customer, a tavern owner, waiting to be let in.
As soon as the customer found out that the store had just been robbed, the tavern owner ran outside and around the corner, in time to see the attackers fleeing in a maroon-coloured VW Golf. He also provided the police with the registration number.


Liquor Guys staff Angus Wildeman (front) and Carlo Titus demonstrate how armed robbers grabbed Wildeman and tried to tie him up with wire after dragging him to the back of the store.

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