Lucky escape —Brave women fight off abductors

TWO women who live on the Berea were lucky to escape with their lives when they were attacked by a gang that followed and cornered them in Glenmore last Thursday evening.

The women, who are known to Berea Mail, wish to remain anonymous for fear of their safety. The woman, aged in their 30s and 40s had arranged to meet for coffee in Glenmore when the incident occurred.

“My friend who was coming from Morningside to meet me does not know Glenmore well and was lost. I walked to Dan Pienaar Road to see If I could spot her. We finally met and as I got into her car, a taxi with five men pulled up directly in front of the vehicle and parked diagonally across the road, preventing us from driving forward,” she said, reliving the traumatic experience.

The woman said she remembered the first man jumped out of the taxi with a rock in his hand and tried to break the windscreen of the vehicle she and her friend were in. “He didn’t  break through the windscreen and within that short period between me getting into the car and the men approaching us, I wasn’t able to lock my door. Another one of the men opened my door and began pulling at me while another held my friend at gunpoint. At first she raised her hands but when she saw how violent they were being with me she realised it was not a normal hijacking, but rather that they wanted us. I started screaming at her to put the car in reverse,” she said.

Confused and terrified, the women had to act fast and realised that while three of the men had them surrounded, two more stood waiting at the taxi. She said the men had not shouted out any instructions to them or made any attempts to grab the car keys or their possessions which included cellphones and handbags. Despite offering up all their valuables, the only response from their attackers was to try pry them out the vehicle. “I just knew that I was going to fight for our lives because I did not want to let them take us in the taxi,” she said. During the struggle she slipped out the car at one point, but thanks to her friend who held onto her with her left arm, she managed to get back into the car.

“When I was back in the car she released the clutch and pumped the gas and held down the hooter. The car flew back about 20 metres, hard enough for one of the men to fall backwards, and we then hit a tree and the car was wedged in. I was knocked out cold, hit the dashboard and landed in my friend’s lap. She leaned across me and closed and locked the doors because the men had lost their grip on us and the vehicle.”

The men approach the vehicle again, hesitantly because the hooter was blaring. Terrified and stunned by the impact with the tree the driver struggled to get the car into first gear. Revving the engine until the car broke free from the tree it was wedged up against, with her friend lying slumped on her lap nursing a broken arm, the woman drove straight at the men at high speed. “She nearly hit the taxi again and swerved to avoid it. The windscreen was smashed and difficult to see through. When I came to, I told her to just drive. I couldn’t see because my eyes were still blurry but I tried to keep her calm and she managed to zigzag her away from the taxi which the men got into and tried to follow us.”

“We only stopped in Glenwood when we got to her brother’s home. Only then did we feel relieved.”

The woman suffered severe whiplash and bruising from where the men grabbed her. Her arm was also broken during the struggle. “We both went for trauma counselling and shifted from trauma to gratitude. We are more aware of being followed after our ordeal.”

Under normal circumstances, had it been an hijacking situation, the woman said they would have let the gang take the car. She said her friend had initially raised her hands up to indicate surrender, but when she saw the men were not interested in the car or their possessions, and the violence they displayed in trying to pry them out the vehicle, they fought to survive. Neither of the women realised the taxi had been following the vehicle before her friend stopped to pick her up.

“We don’t know their intentions, they didn’t speak. They did not even communicating with each other.”

Having survived their ordeal the women have appealed to other motorists to be more vigilant. “Just watch if vehicles are following you, don’t second guess yourself. Also, try to get an escort when driving late at night or opening gates, if your security company offers it or get a male family member to come out when you arrive. The more people around, the less chance of being isolated. We are both just very grateful to be alive because it could have been worse,” she said.

Umbilo detectives are investigating a case of attempted hijacking and attempted abduction.