Money Literally Falls from the Tree After Botched Robbery In South Africa

Cash fell from the sky after a gang of armed robbers blew up an armoured security van to get at the £1.5million in cash locked inside. The gang included ten criminals who were in three cars. They forced the Cash Solutions vehicle off the road on the R71 near Gravelette, Limpopo, South Africa by dramatically shooting out the tyres.

The robbers went ahead and attached explosives to the van then dragged the guards off to a safe distance and detonated the charges blowing the side and roof completely off the vehicle. That was the power of the explosion, parts of the van ended up at the top of nearby trees in a scene akin to the classic scene from The Italian Job.

Money showers billowed up into the air when several of the cash boxes inside were blown open raining rands down over a wide area on the roadside. Meanwhile, two robbers stood over the guards at gunpoint while the rest of the gang grabbed cash boxes full of money, each thought to have been carrying around £90,000.

The £1.5million rand raid saw tens of thousands of rands in 50 and 100 rand notes blown in the breeze on the other side of a fence which was out of reach of the gang. Part of the roof or side of the van was photographed wedged high up in a nearby tree.

It is not yet clear if passing motorists helped themselves after the gang drove off and before the police could arrive and seal off the area to call in a forensics team. The gang escaped with cash and firearms belonging to the security guards.

The Limpopo Police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe said the road would be closed for at least four hours while officers searched for clues to the gang that carried it out. He revealed that: 'There are about 10 men in three vehicles who shot at the van and blew the tyres out to make it veer off the road and then they blew it up with explosives.'

The robber escaped in two Mercedes Benz and a BMW with dozens of cash boxes. The Provincial Tracking Team has been called in to try and track the gang who are believed to have struck a number of times in the region over the last few months.

Back in April another armoured security van was blown up on the R24 at Ekurhulem on the airport road just East of Johannesburg after it was ambushed by a gang in two cars.

The outstanding footage shows what happened when the gunmen forced the guards out of the van then placed explosives under it to blow it open in broad daylight. The roof is seen being blown high into the sky even though hundreds of motorists are trapped in the traffic jam caused by the cash in transit heist and watching on helplessly. However, nobody was injured though many cars caught up in the robbery were damaged by flying debris and both security guards were unhurt and did not hospital treatment.

Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4752962/Money-falls-sky-robbers-blow-security-van.html