Shopping Mall Robbed at Gun Point

The clock chimes. It is five o’clock, time to go home.

Ruben logs of his computer and stretches his muscular body before standing up to leave the office. He pauses in the door and scans his desk to make sure everything is neat and tidy. Satisfied he heads for his car.

‘Ruben!’ Jason calls him before he could climb into his car.

‘You going to gym tonight’

‘Not sure buddy. I have to do some shopping for the wife first.’ Ruben sighed.

‘Bummer, rather you my man’ Jason slapped him on the back.

‘Thanks for that. ‘ Ruben smiled ‘See you in the morn’

‘Cheers buddy, have fun’

Ruben weaves expertly through the peak hour traffic. One hour and ten minutes later, he pulls into the Leondale shopping centre parking. He turns of the ignition and before getting out he hunts in the console for the shopping list Jennie, his wife, scribbled down this morning.  He crumples three pieces of paper before he finds her list. Ruben shoves it in his shirt pocket, climbs out, locks his door, and heads for the shop.

Mike, the owner of the Spar family store greets him with a vigorous handshake. They have a five-minute chat before he excuses himself and enters the cool, air-conditioned shop.  Surprisingly, Rubin fills the order on the list in less than ten minutes. He crumbles the shopping list and shoves it into his pants pocket, happy with this achievement. He searches out the shortest queue and takes position behind an old woman. He checks his watch. It is half past six, good, still early.

A commotion draws Ruben’s attention to the shop entrance. The people at the door fall to the ground as if some unseen hand is forcing them down. In an instant, a man stands at their queue with an automatic rifle pointing at Rubens face.

‘Get down!’ the man shouts. His eyes tell Ruben not to try anything funny.

The old woman struggles to get to the floor and Ruben tries to aid her but the man pushes the rifle against his cheek. Ruben leaves the woman and immediately complies. He rages inside, wanting to attack this small man holding him hostage, but he is powerless against the rifle pointing at his head.

Ruben sees the man leaving, hears the cars outside start up and the tires screeching as they chase of into the darkness of the night. Ruben checks his watch. The whole event lasted ten minutes. He gets up and helps the woman to her feet. Hi shakes his hands to stop them shaking. Ruben left his shopping in the trolley. He wants to get home. This day, 11th May 2011, he knows,  he could be dead. He just wants to get home.

The above story relates actual Events at Leondale shopping center on May 11th 2011. Only the Characters in the story are fictitious.

35-armed men arrived in vans at the shopping center at half past six. They entered all five shops and forced the clientele to the floor. They emptied out all the tills, took stock from the Spar, and emptied the bottle store of all spirit alcohol. Within ten minutes, they were in and out. No one was hurt in the incident except for the cash flow of all the businesses in the center. Although there was no blood shed, the truth is there were a lot of damage done to the minds of those that went through the ordeal.