ABSTRACT
In principle, carrying out an commercial armed robbery is a relatively straightforward exercise. It simply involves selecting an appropriate target, walking into the premises, threatening the cashier with a real or implied weapon, demanding the money, putting the money in a bag and walking out. However, in practice, the variations on this model are endless and the constraints and controls that are now in place in most commercial establishments create a number of potential complications and difficulties. The general impediments to carrying out a successful robbery include victim resistance and the presence of a range of security devices, as well as a number of unforeseen and unforeseeable contingencies. In one robbery, for example, in which the robber's co-defendant ‘lost his bottle’ on the way in to the bank, the robber who was interviewed decided the best way to proceed with robbing these premises – which he had unsuccessfully tried to rob on a previous occasion – was to take a customer hostage:
I went in there and as I walked in I grabbed an African woman – a Nigerian woman. The teller shut his window. This Pakistani teller and the African … couldn't understand each other. As I grabbed the customer, her wig and hair net came off and another bloke – a South African – was trying to attack me … It's all on camera, but I don't remember hitting the customer. This is on camera – me hitting the customer – he's got two stitches. I grabbed the woman … I’m trying to calm her down. The teller's window was shut and the manager's come out of the back and said: ‘I know you from last time,’ and it all went off so quick. He was fighting me so I had to smash the window of the door, ‘cos I pushed the door instead of pulling it … And I’m panicking now and I’m starting to lose all my marbles, you know, so I smashed the windows trying to get out and people are looking in from the outside now you see … So I pulled the door and escaped, and as I was saying, that's all I remember. Getting in the car I was so shaken that my mate said: ‘What's that in your hand?’ and I said it looks like a wig or something …
