A morning robbery in Cullinan proved fruitless for 15 men who held up a cash-in-transit vehicle only to find the box they had stolen was empty.

Pretoria police said robbers travelling in a Mercedes-Benz car crashed head-on into a Fidelity Guard vehicle on Monday. Occupants in a bakkie behind the Mercedes then stopped and joined in the hold-up.

The robbers apparently used picks, hammers and crowbars to break into the guards’ vehicle.

They managed to steal only one of the three cash boxes - the one without cash in it.

It was found abandoned a few metres from the scene of the robbery.