JANNA Strang’s faith in humanity has never been stronger after the help she received from perfect strangers when her cellphone was snatched from her hand in Steel Road, Morningside, last week.
Janna said she was on her way to see a client who lives on Steel Road. She parked her car and had just got out when the client called her cellphone.
“It was about 20m away from my destination, and while I was walking wrapping up the call, a man shot past and grabbed my cellphone out of my hands. He kept running, and my not-so-clever instinct was to run after him.
“I screamed the whole time I was chasing him, to alert people to the fact that he had stolen my phone. After about two blocks I realised I was going to lose him, so I gave up and started walking back to my car,” she said.
Janna said the fleet-footed thief had dashed up Bishop Road where she had lost him. She said she had noticed, while she was chasing the thief, that people were taking notice, some even coming out their homes.
“I saw some people running but didn’t think much of it. A homeless man then came up to me and said ‘Mam, they got him and they have your phone’. I followed him and it was like elation – there were around 20 guys all high-fiving and regaling the story of how the man who caught him, Ajith Hariparsad, had leapt on him like superman!” laughed Janna.
She said there was a lawyers’ office across from where the thief had been caught, and a lawyer, Sid Taverner, had come out with cable ties to apprehend him, and had taken statements from all the witnesses.
“A resident, Stephan Horne, had seen a car driving up and down casing the area and watched the driver drop two guys off. He thought they were going to steal a car, but one of them had robbed me. He called his brother-in-law who is a Metro Police officer who in turn called two officers who were on duty from Albert Park Metro Police, Rowan Moonsamy and Candice China, who were amazing!” she said.
“They did everything and were so unbelievably helpful and accommodating. I just want to recognise everyone who came through for me. I think South Africans are just so sick of crime that they are standing up and saying they are not going to accept it anymore. It shows something can be achieved by people coming together. These people were amazing and I have been singing their praises since it happened. It is so incredible that people are trying to overcome crime together,” she said.
