Two Middelburg women witnessed and managed to help prevent a girl from being kidnapped in Springbok Street, Kanonkop on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter a mother from another Middelburg suburb, Gholfsig, told of how her daughter was targeted by a car with two men matching the description of those involved in the first incident.

The two Kanonkop residents told the Middelburg Observer that they often see learners walking past their homes in the afternoon. A woman who requested to remain anonymous, says she was alerted of something happening in the street when she heard a girl scream at around 16:00.

She rushed outside and saw a blue BMW with two men next to a schoolgirl. A car door was open and one of the men had the girl by her shirt. The woman screamed at them, drawing their attention, and giving the girl time to slip from the man’s grasp.

The girl fled over the nearby R555 an into an open field next to a gravel road while the men in the BMW chased after her but had to take a longer route down Springbok Street to cross the R555.

The women screamed at the girl not to head that way, because the men had set after her. She then turned around and ran back to Springbok Street, where they lost sight of her.

The women both confirmed how the men drove down the gravel road, stopping and searching for the girl amongst the bushes. The women picked up a bag the girl dropped during the incident and kept it with them.

“I was hoping the girl might return to look for the bag and kept myself busy in my front yard when I saw a car driving up and down slowly. I flagged them down, when the girl’s mom told me how grateful she is we took her bag, because it contained her personal information,” the woman said.

Not long after the news of the attempted abduction broke, a rattled mother of a 17-year-old girl told the Middelburg Observer that the men who were involved in the incident in Kanonkop, were the same persons set after her daughter, who was walking home from the Middelburg Country Club in Gholfsig.

The mother requested anonymity out of fear that her daughter may be targeted.

She explained that her daughter was walking home at 16:10 on Wednesday, when a BMW and two men fitting the description, drove up next to her. The man in the passenger seat jumped out and instructed the girl to ‘give me the cell phone or I’ll shoot you,’ as he proceeded to stick his hand into his jacket.

The girl managed to flee.

“This was the same dark blue BMW with a tinted rear window, without registration plates, it had two males inside and was driving with its hazards on,” the mother explained.

The mother is convinced that the Kanonkop incident might have taken place a little before 16:00, which allows enough time for them to make it to Gholfsig.

She explained that her daughter was afraid of abduction because of the way the man charged at her.

“We need to spread the news as far as possible, because evidently these men are actively scouting the [Middelburg] community.”

• Neither eyewitness in Kanonkop took down the details of the girl or her mother, and it could not be confirmed whether a case was opened with the police. The two ladies, however, wished to alert parents of the incident out of fear that it might happen again.