Another abduction bid in Pta
Centurion mother recalls when four men tried to steal her baby.
A Centurion mother’s baby was almost snatched from his pram just outside her home on Monday afternoon.
Chevone Venter was walking home down Pieter Botha Avenue in Pierre van Ryneveld when she was mobbed by four hooded men, who demanded that she hand over her son to them.
“I had just returned from Spar and was walking back home, which is only a few hundred metres down the road when four men in red hoodies and with gloves stopped me,” said Venter.
“They demanded my baby, who was strapped in to his pram, but I refused. I offered them my cellphone, wedding ring and bank cards, but they demanded my baby.”
Venter said the four men then tried to grab her son from his pram but they were scared off by a passing white bakkie.
“When the men ran away I grabbed my son and ran home. I notified the Lyttelton sector 3 community policing forum, who helped search for the men.”
The CPF notified the Lyttelton police, and along with security agencies, searched for the men, but to no avail.
“I am so thankful that nothing bad happened to us. The police however advised us not to walk alone again,” said Venter.
She said she still had nightmares of the attempt.
Lyttelton police are yet to comment on the attempted abduction.
Four similar events were reported in and around Pretoria the past month.
Last Thursday, eight-week-old Ila Burger was almost taken from her mother Zoë at the Castle Walk centre in Erasmuskloof.
Burger said she was in the parking lot of the centre when a man and a woman, who had followed her in the Woolworths store in the centre, walked up to her and demanded her baby.
Burger screamed for help from security. The man and the woman then left shortly after.
About a week earlier, a woman reported another apparent attempted abduction at the NG Moreleta Park church.
A woman, who asked not to be named, said she and her two-year-old daughter had just walked out of the church when she turned around for a brief moment.
“When I looked back I saw a man holding my daughter’s hand, saying: ‘Come with me, come with me quick.
“I then confronted the man and told him she was not going anywhere with him. He did not even look at me and just walked away.”
On the same day, a 14-month-old girl was also almost snatched from a trolley in the Checkers store in Moreleta Village.
“I had just bent down to get yoghurt out of a fridge when I felt my daughter pull at my hand,” he mother of the girl said.
“At first I thought she was just trying to stand up, but when I turned around I saw a man already holding my daughter in his arms,” she said.
“When I grabbed her back, he said I was overreacting and that he was just making a joke.”
She said the man was then joined by another man and both promptly left the store. They met up with another man outside the store before walking away.
Identikits of two of the men were also released by the Garsfontein police.
Late last month, an attempt was made to snatch three-year-old Abbigail Combrinck outside a Checkers in Raslouw, Centurion.
Garsfontein police spokesperson Dave Miller has encouraged all parents involved in incidents like these to report it to police to investigate.
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