ONE of three alleged hijackers was killed during a shootout with police and the Hillcrest K9 Unit last night.
Thelma Smith (76) was the victim of this hijacking, which took place at the Open Door Crisis Centre’s parking lot on Tuesday 6 August at 5.30pm.
She said a man armed with a gun demanded she open the door and move to the passenger seat. Then two men jumped into the back seat of the Open Door Crisis vehicle, a white Toyota Tazz.
“I started screaming and he punched me in the face, bruising my lip. They pulled me to the back seat while one man moved to the front of the car. They then told me to put my head in between my legs and said they would rape and shoot me if I moved,” said Thelma.
The hijackers ransacked her handbag and stole her ring, bank cards and pearl necklace. They asked her for the pin numbers for her bank cards which she gave to them.
The robbers repeatedly asked her if the car had a tracker and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t tell them.
“I didn’t know where I was, but realised it must have been the locations, because the road was not tarred. They stopped the car a couple of times, and began to strip parts of it. When they thought I had cash on me they wanted to frisk me, but by then the car had stopped, and the two men in the front jumped out. The man in the back of the car moved to the drivers seat and began driving around again. I picked my head up and noticed a building called KwaNdengezi SuperSpar, then knew where I was,” said Thelma.
She said the driver drove recklessly, almost like he didn’t know how to drive. After a while he went back to fetch the other two men who she believed were at an ATM. They continued to drive around aimlessly.
After two hours of driving around, the hijackers stopped the vehicle and threw Thelma out along with her cell phone.
A young couple, Innocent and Penelope Ndlovu came to Thelma’s aid and took her to the KwaNdengezi police station where she waited for her sister, Thora Mansfield to fetch her.
According to Thora Mansfield, director of Open Door, she had called her sister who said she didn’t want to be harassed.
“I asked her to give me one word which will give me an idea of where she is, she said ‘human’. I thought human trafficking which is linked to tricked, trapped and transported. I immediately notified the police that her sister had been either hijacked or abducted,” said Thora.
Thelma was taken to the Pinetown SAPS to make a statement and was assisted by a member of the Open Door Crisis Centre board, who is a colonel of the Special Crimes Unit.
According to SAPS spokesman, Col Jay Naicker, members of the K9 Unit were on patrol in Hillcrest when they received a report of a hijacking. A short while later they spotted a vehicle fitting the same description given to them in the Shongweni area.
“When police attempted to pull over the vehicle the hijackers sped off with police giving chase. They lost control of the vehicle and crashed in the sugarcane fields. It is alleged that the perpetrators then opened fire at the police and police returned fire. One of the suspects was fatally wounded during the shootout while two others managed to escape,” said Naicker.
Open Door Crisis Centre is appealing to anyone who can help replace the vehicle that was stripped and to increase security for its premises.
