Henrique McDonald was on his way to work at Master Drilling, where he is doing an apprenticeship, when he was hijacked by four unknown men on 4 August just after 13:00. The incident happened about two kilometres outside Fochville.
According to his mother, Mrs. Rika McDonald, she immediately knew that something was wrong when her son’s workplace phoned her to say that he had not arrived there.
She tried to call his phone but someone immediately refused each of her calls.
She immediately opened a missing person case with the police in Fochville and contacted the company tracking her son’s silver Volkswagen Polo.
Although the car was spotted on cameras inside Fochville and on the R500 and R54 roads, there was no sign of what happened to Henrique.
The police and various community members and organisations such as the Community Policing Forum (CPF) and members of the Stock Theft Information Centre (STIC) jumped into action to try to search for him. Things became even more tense when his car was found burned out in Soweto. Luckily Henrique was found where the thugs had dropped him off in Evaton near Vereeniging at 18:37.
“He phoned me and said, Mommy, I have been hijacked,” his mother says.
Luckily the family has friends in that area who picked Henrique up and returned his to his parents.
“His body is still sore but luckily he is OK. We are just so grateful that nothing serious happened to him. The car is an earthly thing that can be replaced,” his mother told the Herald on Tuesday.
