BULAWAYO – A crafty gang of armed robbers played fuel attendants after ransacking a service station in Bulawayo, and collected cash from unsuspecting motorists to boost their loot before vanishing with US$2,000, police said.

The movie-style heist occurred at Meizon Petroleum Station along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road on Thursday night, a day or two after Trek Garage, another service station was targeted by thieves who made off with more than US$15,000.

Armed with two firearms and a bolt cutter, three audacious robbers emerged from the woods and tied down three employees with shoelaces, including a security guard, only to find there wasn’t much money to steal.

They tried in vain to blast open the money safe with explosives.

Then they became ingenious. Or geniuses.

The daring bandits then ordered one employee to fuel cars for hours while one of them monitored him closely, pretending to be a fellow attendant and collecting money from oblivious motorists.

“The first accused person was armed with a pistol, the second one with a revolver, and the third one had a bolt cutter. The one with a pistol was tall and light in complexion while the one with a revolver was short and light in complexion,” said acting Bulawayo police spokesperson Nomalanga Msebele of the Meizon robbery.

The third suspect’s description was not captured, she added.

As the invisible robbery played out smoothly at the fuel pumps, the other two employees lay facedown on the office floor, hands bound backwards and guarded by the other gun-toting raiders.

From one employee, they took US$500 plus a Huawei P9 cell phone and an undisclosed amount from another in proceeds from the day’s sales.

An off-guard security supervisor who arrived during the robbery on a motorbike was quickly seized and detained with the other “hostages,” the police spokesperson said.

“The robbers demanded to know where the safe was before one of them who had a bolt cutter forced marched one of the employees into the office for the safe.

“The robber with a bolt cutter used it to break open the screen door, entered the safe office, disconnected the CCTV recorder with a server from the system, took it and attempted to break open the safe door using some explosives but failed,” Msebele said

After boosting their loot to about US$2,000 with the real-time fuel sales, the gang took off and disappeared into darkness. They also seized a CCTV recorder to destroy evidence, leaving the three employees and their security supervisor bound.

The victims managed to free themselves around 3 am – four hours later – and made a report to Mzilikazi Police Station who attended the scene together with detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Canine, or the dog section.

“The police are urging members of the public not to fight back when they are approached by these armed robberies in order to save life. The companies should avoid divulging their financial status. They should employ strong security systems at their premises,” the police counseled.