It's registration week at Anglican Cathedral College and today that made the school a prime target for a pair of armed robbers. Around 11:30 this morning two young men wearing black stockings over their heads and armed with guns entered the school's main office, on Albert Street, which was filled with parents who were registering their children for the new school year. No one was hurt but the gunmen escaped with money and checks from the cash pan. A student who saw the entire incident unfold told us off camera what he saw. He says, at first, they thought the holdup was a prank.
Eyewitness,
"Two young men came in. First they were like fighting (trying) to put the masks over their face and then we that were in there hollered like, 'stop playing,' because we saw the gun and when she saw it she ran out and they ran out behind her because they told everybody not to run and she still ran. And then one of them stayed at the door and tried to close it, to stop people from coming in, and the other jumped over the counter and went for the cash register. People in there ran and he pointed the gun and I was afraid someone would get shot. I just sat and watched them. They got what they wanted and left."
Patrick Faber, Vice-Principal
"I was actually in a meeting in the principal's office when it happened so I can't say that I saw what happened. But from the accounts given to us by the office staff, there were two young men who came in, with stocking masks.
They came into the office where the registration process was taking place
and one of them jumped over the counter, apparently knowing exactly where the monies were being collected and demanded the money while the other one stood at the door and I understand that both of them had guns. They took the cash pan and basically just ran off the compound.
Its funny because under this tent that we are standing here, there were students under here, there were people sitting by the bleachers, there were people over in this classroom over here who were actually conducting the paperwork for the registration and the office was filled with people and these are very, these are what you call brazen criminals in deed. And as the guys ran off they took off the mask and we were able to get one of the masks but police have come and nothing has really come out of anything yet.
It's sad because these monies are what the school depend on for its operations throughout the course of the year. So when we have this kind of crime happening at this institution, or any learning institution for that matter, it sends a signal of what our society is thinking like. The value of education is so important to our society so we would hope that those persons out there who may have committed the crime, may find it in their heart somehow to return the money."
While police responded to the scene when we arrived they had already left and they left behind a key piece of evidence, one of the stocking masks used by one of the robbers. $12,000 was stolen.
