Shop co-owner John Stavrinou and staffers pistol-whipped by seven gunmen in attack at Wentworth shop

Shop-owner John Stavrinou and staffers pistol-whipped by seven gunmen who attacked Wentworth, Durban Spar at 08h20am. December 24 2013 By Sphelele Ngubane Durban - Seven armed robbers held up the Wentworth Spar, south of Durban, in a brazen daylight attack on Monday, then, with their loot in a plastic crate, hailed a loaded minibus taxi and, at gunpoint, directed the driver to help them escape. About 30 staff and a handful of customers were in the shop during the robbery about 8.20am. The robbers made off with about R200,000.Several staff and one of the shop’s owners, John Stavrinou, were beaten and pistolwhipped by the men.A woman who works in the deli said two men came to the counter with a packet of rolls in their shopping basket. “I asked if I could help them, but they both pulled out guns and told me to sit down and not look at them.” As she went down, she saw another two men beating a colleague and dragging him upstairs towards the manager’s office. Taxi conductor Sebastian Young was in the loaded taxi the robbers hijacked to escape. Stavrinou, who had a bloody eye and red marks on his neck, said he lay on the floor while the robbers emptied the safe.“They loaded coins and banknotes into a crate which had contained milk bottles,” he said. Stavrinou said a similar incident happened two years ago, but that time the robbers did not get away with any money. http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/gunmen-in-brazen-attack-on-shop-1.1626345#.UrufVPvGXtU