Latest crime trends in Boksburg

The latest police reports show ongoing armed business robberies and the hijacking of high-end bakkies, including Toyota Hiluxes and Ford Rangers. The reports also highlighted deadly gun violence in local informal settlements.

Here are some of the serious crimes recently reported to the Boksburg SAPS:

Driver escapes armed hijackers
A Toyota Hilux Double Cab driver recently escaped unhurt in what appeared to be an attempted hijacking on the corner of North Boundary and Trichardts roads in Sunward Park.

According to police reports, two armed men approached the victim, who was driving on North Boundary Road, when he reached the intersection of the two roads (stop street).

One man crossed in front of his car, and the other tried to open the driver’s door, but it was locked.
One man pointed a firearm at the driver, but he continued driving. The gunman opened fire at the vehicle, but the driver sped off to a nearby filling station, where he found that two bullets had hit the car’s right-hand side.
Police registered a case of attempted hijacking and attempted murder.

E-hailing driver ambushed
An e-hailing driver recently had his car, a white Toyota Corolla Quest, hijacked by two men who asked to be taken from Malvern to the Delmore informal settlement.

Reports indicate that as the driver entered the informal settlement, he noticed that the road they were on led into a cul-de-sac. He stopped and told the pair he couldn’t continue, but one of the clients held a gun to his head, ordering him to move into the passenger seat.

The driver tried to escape through the open door but was hit on the head and shoulder with the firearm before he fell to the ground.
The pair drove off in his car, but with the help of a tracking device, it was later recovered in the nearby Delmore informal settlement.
The injured driver went to the hospital for treatment.

Hijacked
A driver was admitted to the hospital after he was recently assaulted by about four armed criminals when they hijacked his Ford Ranger on the corner of Dudley Smith Road and President Brand Street.

A Toyota Tazz, with four occupants, blocked the Ford Ranger before two gun-carrying hijackers got into the victim’s bakkie and ordered him to drive to the Boksburg City Stadium, where they repeatedly assaulted him.

Another driver recently had his Toyota Hilux bakkie hijacked when driving on the corner of Commissioner Street and Brakpan Road.
He told the police he was held up by an armed man when he stopped at the intersection, who ordered him to open the door, which he did.

Once in the bakkie, the gunman told the victim to drive to a particular place. Three accomplices were waiting for them there.
The group blindfolded the victim, took his belongings and forced him into another vehicle before driving off with him and dropping him on Nyathi Crescent, Soweto.
He was helped to the police station to report the matter.

Truck hijacking and kidnapping
A truck driver and his crew member recently had their employer’s truck transporting alcohol worth about R1m hijacked on the R554 near Sunward Park.
The complainant told the police they were ambushed by four men, one in a traffic police uniform, driving in a white VW Polo with blue lights.

The pair was held at gunpoint, forced into the hijackers’ Polo, and taken to a secluded spot near the intersection of Heidelberg and Klipriviersberg roads.
They later flagged down a police patrol vehicle, which took them to the Elsburg SAPS to report the crime.

Two shot in tavern robbery
Police are investigating murder, attempted murder and robbery cases after two people were recently robbed and others shot in an illegal shebeen in the Jerusalem informal settlement.
Reports indicate that at about 03:15 four criminals stormed the tavern, known as Out Line, and robbed the patrons of their belongings.

They fatally shot one victim in the head, and another suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Not far from this scene, a man recently died in the Angelo informal settlement after gunmen pumped five bullets into his body.
The complainant told the police he was asleep in his shack when he heard gunshots outside. He went out, only to find his brother lying on the ground after being shot.

When the police arrived, they found that the deceased had suffered five gunshots to his chest, neck, lower limb and the right and left sides of his chin. They also recovered five spent cartridges and one live bullet on the scene.

About six gunmen recently entered a shop known as Bafana Bafana near Main Reef Road’s Kanana informal settlement, held the operator at gunpoint, assaulted him and looted the shop. Shots were fired, but the victim was uninjured.

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