Tyres deflate: Criminals lie in wait to rob spiked cars from OR Tambo

A Tshwane resident had to fork out more than R10 000 to replace his car’s damaged tyres after a spiking incident on his drive to OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday.

Luckily, Andronicus Kgwthamane wasn’t robbed when this happened. He said he drove on the extreme left of the road after his car’s tyres had been spiked about nine kilometres from the airport.

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“We were early, so I drove in the far left lane because I was going slow to avoid parking at the airport and timing it to go to the pickup points.

“I saw the board that indicated that we were 10km away and we still had half an hour to spare,” he said.

Kgwthamane said he had felt the impact of the spikes and immediately heard the sound of metal scraping.

“I told my daughter and son who were in the car that we had been spiked and within seconds the car started slowing down.

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“I saw the speedometer go from 118km/h to 50km/h, but I refused to stop. I kept on driving,” he said.

Kgwthamane said he passed two other cars parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights on. “I suspect they might have been spiked, too. When we returned from the airport we saw a car’s tyre being changed,” he said.

Kgwthamane said he was too paranoid to stop and help. “I drove on that tyre to the airport and then phoned a towing service. When we took the car in to get a new tyre they discovered the other tyres had also been punctured by the spikes,” he said.

Kgwthamane said he had not seen anything in the road when it happened. “I just felt it and heard it. I was worried, but I didn’t want my children to see that,” he said.

Kgwthamane said the back tyres cost him R5 651 and the front R7 016. “There goes spending money for the holiday we planned to Cape Town,” he said.

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Criminologist Prof Jaco Bark said the victim was right not to stop immediately. “Victims must never stop immediately, because that’s what the criminals want them to do,” he said.

Barkhuizen said victims of spiking should slow down and drive as far as possible from the scene of the spiking to avoid being mugged and robbed if they stopped and got out of the car.

“Spiking on the highways and byways of the country will increase because it’s currently very profitable for criminals to place spikes on the roads because of the lack of visibility of police or metro police on patrols,” he said.

Barkhuizen said highways and byways were generally high crime areas.

“Spiking incidents will increase during December because criminals know citizens carry cash and have valuable items with them, especially if they are travelling,” he warned.

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Barkhuizen said spiking involves placing spikes or other sharp objects in the road, often hidden in plastic bags, to damage cars’ tyres and force motorists to stop or crash, so as to rob them.

Last month, Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and two of her bodyguards were robbed after their car’s tyres were spiked on the N3 in Vosloorus in Ekurhuleni.