Would-be hijackers nabbed

TWO BRAVE policewomen, with the help of local community members made light work of a would-be hijacking on Tuesday last week.
According to Constable Sthembile Mngomezulu and Ntombifuthi Thabede they were on their way to Nquthu Magistrates Court when they came upon this mishap.
“From a distance it looked as though the woman who we assumed was the driver of the vehicle was having a heated argument with the man she was standing with at the crossroad headed to Paulpietersburg near Stilwater,” said Constable Mngomezulu.
“I then stopped the car and just as we approached, the man took off with two other men just ahead of him,” she continued.
The woman then informed the policewomen that she had picked these three men up near Newcastle where they were hitchhiking.
The three had shown no suspicious signs and had told her to stop at the road headed to Paulpietersburg as they were headed there.
Although she did not understand why they did not want to catch a taxi in town, she did not argue and had stopped on the side of the road for them to get off.
It is alleged that the three then demanded her cellphone and purse and while the other two made off with these, the one man stayed behind and demanded her car keys.
This was fortunately just as Constable Mngomezulu and Thabede were driving by.
“When the man started running, we both gave chase and soon staff members from Muloro B&B (formerly known as Stilwater Hotel) and the surrounding farms came out to help,” Constable Thabede recalled.
The first suspect was nabbed before he even reached the fields while the other two made their escape to the nearby bushes.
According to Christine Taylor, wife of Ken Taylor who owns the farm to which the suspects ran, they were alerted by Dirk from Faith Wheels that there had been a hijacking at Stilwater.
“Just as Dirk was explaining the story we saw two of the suspects running through the field just below our farm,” Mrs Taylor recalled.
Mrs Taylor said that she wasted no time and called two of her assistants Themba and Petrus to get on the bakkie with her as she headed out after the two.
“We also alerted other surrounding farmers and together we came up with the idea of splitting. We drove from opposite sides of the field and soon we had the suspects surrounded and this is where the other two were caught,” she said.
The three were taken into custody and were set to appear at the Vryheid Magistrate’s Court on Monday, July 13.
The Vryheid SAPS would like to thank all the community members around the Stilwater area who helped bring these criminals to book.
The SAPS encouraged all local community members to stand together with them in their fight against crime just like the community members from Stilwater.