Monday, March 9, 2009

ATM Robbery

Finally it happens in UAE, it doesn’t take a genius to notice the different in approach between the securities personnel transferring money into ATM in Malaysia and UAE. Due to high crime rates in Malaysia, guards are usually very alert and careful when loading the ATM but it was totally opposite in UAE, guards are so relax. Time has change, lot of people are jobless now in UAE.

As reported in www.7days.ae

A security guard is recovering in hospital after being shot outside a bank during an armed robbery. An eyewitness told 7DAYS that the guard was left screaming in agony and lying in a pool of blood following the attack on the Noor Islamic Bank on Buhairah Corniche in Sharjah early yesterday morning.

The eyewitness said: “Everything happened so quickly. The robbers arrived in a white-coloured Prado car and attacked one of the security guards as he carried the money into the premises in metal boxes. The thieves were all wearing masks to hide their identities.” The man said that the incident happened at 12.30am. “There were three men who carried out the robbery. They could not be caught as they were carrying a weapon,” he said. It is believed that thousands in cash was stolen as the eyewitness said the gang got away with four cash containers, which normally contain at least dhs100,000 each. However, the exact amount of cash stolen has yet to be disclosed by police or the bank.

The witness said four security guards were trying to transfer the money into the ATM machines when they were attacked and robbed.

“The money was brought in a secure vehicle. One guard was inside the vehicle while three others were trying to deposit the money. The armed men attacked one security guard and fled the scene with the cash,” he said. The Pakistani security guard who was shot is recovering in Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah and is in his early thirties. Hospital sources confirmed the incident and said a man with bullet wounds was brought to the hospital for treatment. A watchman from a nearby building who heard the gunshot said that he initially thought someone was bursting a firecracker.

“I never thought that it was gun being fired. It’s only after seeing the security guard lying in a pool of blood that I realised that someone had shot him. “The man was badly wounded and was crying in pain,” he said. Another man, who ran down the building from the 22nd floor after hearing the gunshot, said: “There was a loud noise followed by much commotion. I came down from the building to see the man lying on the ground in great pain. It was shocking to see him like that and looked like he had been shot in the leg.”

Sharjah Police confirmed they were investigating the robbery. “We received the emergency call about a robbery incident near an ATM machine in Buhairah Corniche when a security van was delivering cash to the ATM machines,” an officer at Sharjah Police said. “We are investigating to find out more details about the raid,” the officer added.

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