FOLLOWING a hijacking ordeal on August 19 in Birch Acres, a 44-year-old Norkem Park mother’s vehicle was recovered a week later riddled with bullets holes, with fake number plates and a badly damaged tyre.
The mother was standing outside her friend’s house on Umbilo Street, having a conversation, when she was hijacked that evening. Her 10-year-old daughter was still in the car when the robbers attacked.
The car was eventually recovered in Pretoria on Friday morning, August 26.
Details surrounding the recovery of the vehicle are a mystery to its owner.
The Norkem Park mother was collecting her daughter from her friend’s place when the traumatic incident took place.
“I was parked in the driveway and stood by the closed driver’s door. My friend stood at the boot. We saw two guys walk past, chatting. They were wearing work overalls. I don’t even remember when or how they turned back,” she explained.
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Before she knew it, the men had turned back and one pointed a firearm at her face, while the other stood behind her and put a gun to her head, forcing her to lie face down.
“The one kept saying, ‘You, you, you.’ I showed him the car keys and told him to take the car but to please let my daughter go. I did not know where my friend was at the time,” she further explained.
The suspects let her daughter out of the car and fled the scene with the victim’s navy 2005 model Audi A4 2l, a car she had had since February 2005. At the time it did not have a tracker fitted.
In the car was her daughter’s books, uniform and tablet, along with her laptop bag, external hard drive and bank and medical cards.
Her cellphone fell onto the ground unnoticed by the suspects.
She opened a case at Norkem Park Police Station and at the time police said there was a slim chance of recovering the vehicle as there was no tracker fitted.
However, the flying squad recovered the vehicle in Pretoria a week later.
