Two suspected N4 hijackers believed to have been terrorising motorists, were arrested on Tuesday night after a motorist was robbed on the N4 near the Donkerhoek off-ramp in Gauteng.

The robbers would reportedly throw rocks and other sharp objects on the road to cause vehicles to break down, then quickly attack the motorists.

Etienne Schoeman, the owner of Echo-1 Security, said they received a call on Tuesday night about shots fired on the stretch of road.

“We had units in the area and we quickly dispatched them. They found one motorist travelling east who got robbed by four men after hitting unknown objects on the road and forced to stop.”

Schoeman says the motorist was robbed of cellphones and bank cards, and adds the units spotted the suspected robbers and a shoot-out ensued.

“The robbers ran into the bushes, but we pulled in more units and enough manpower from more security partners and a search began.”

Schoeman says a member of his response team arrested one suspected hijacker on the R104.

“We confirmed his identity with the victim and he was taken into police custody. He led us to their safe house.”

After getting the information about the other suspect, the company hit the safe house around midnight and another suspect was found.

“We found another suspect after raiding their safe house and his identity was also confirmed by the victim. He was subsequently handed to Boschkop police.”

Schoeman tells Pretoria Rekord that on Wednesday morning, they went to the scene with SAPS K9 to look for outstanding evidence and a toy gun was found.

“There might still be other weapons outstanding that they used but we are confident we got the right people. This is not the end of the spiking as there are some other copycats out there.”

He, however, says this is a major breakthrough and thanks Lakes Security Forum for its support.