I am a 70 year old pensioner, and was shopping at PEP STORES, RANDRIDGE MALL, RANDBURG, when my ONE WEEK OLD, cell phone was stolen from my bag. I was looking at an items of clothing when two well spoken and respectable women started hassling me. The one kept bumping me from the back while the other one was encouraging me to keep looking for my correct size further on the rack. Suddenly the were gone from beside me and I realized what might have happened, and I looked for my wallet and cell phone and other valuables and discovered that my cell phone was missing. I screamed for help as the two suspects were hastily leaving the door of the store. There was a security guard right outside the door but he proved to be very ineffective. One assistant ran out of the door but said she did not see where they had run to. I enquired about security cameras in the store and was informed that they would not be effective in assisting me with my problem.
When I spoke to an assistant after the phone had been taken from my bag, she told me that the two suspects had been in the store all morning and had bought nothing and suddenly were running from the store when I started screaming. Why then was no one watching these particular ladies all the time, because to be in that store for hours would surely raise suspicion.
Should Pep Stores wish to keep their regular customers, some sort of effective security measures urgently need to be implemented.
When I notified my service provider of the theft of my phone, I was informed that it was the second phone stolen in that particular store in the past TWO WEEKS !
The area where I was looking at clothing is completely hidden from the front counter. The clothing racks are very close together and tightly packed with items on hangers. So a bump form a 'supposed' genuine buying customer is not unusual but during this Covid pandemic times there is no space for proper social distancing between the different racks.