‘Take her, we need two more’ – Rhodesfield mom hears during attempted abduction
She was on her way home after buying bread and airtime to the value of R12.
A Rhodesfield mother was left traumatised after two men tried to abduct her on Monday morning last week.
Antonette Harmse (36) has lived in Rhodesfield for only three months. She walked to a local shop near her house, as she always does, to buy bread and R12 worth of airtime.
On her way home, at around 11.30am, a white Golf with two men inside drove past her and stopped.
“The driver asked me if I knew where a certain street was. When I said no, the man sitting in the back seat jumped out of the car and grabbed me,” Harmse said.
According to Harmse’s description, the driver had short hair, a white shirt and grey pants, while the man who grabbed her had a long beard, a ponytail and the number 26 tattooed on his right hand.
Harmse saw a knife on the back seat of the car. Both men spoke Afrikaans.
Harmse shared her story with Express from a brown leather couch. Her husband of one year, Dirk (55), sat next to her. In her left hand, adorned with a new wedding ring, she clutched a tissue. Her blue eyes filled with tears as she recalled the event but she did not cry once.
“I fought and tried to get away from the man,” she said.
“I heard the driver saying ‘Vat haar, ons het nog twee om te kry (take her, we still need two more).”
At this point, a good Samaritan drove past in a silver Audi. He stopped and shouted, which enabled Harmse to escape.
“He shouted for me to go home and then sped after the suspects.”
She said the thought of her husband and daughter Justine (14), who has autism, kept her going.
Dirk described that his wife arrived home traumatised.
“They just tried to abduct me,” she told him and his aunt, Rita Brooks (56).
The couple lives in an apartment adjoining Brooks’ home. Brooks posted about the incident on their community WhatsApp group. There, a young girl replied that men with the same description tried to abduct her as well.
“They took my trust away,” Harmse, who has had multiple nightmares after the incident, said.
“I will never walk alone or unarmed again.”
She said she reported the incident at Kempton Park Police Station.
“However, as the motive of the men is unknown, I was told a case could not be opened.”
Harmse would like to find the man in the silver Audi so that she can thank him for helping her get away.
“If it wasn’t for him …”
