Two Wychwood families have been the targets of hijackers in the last few weeks.
On May 11, Cheré Page’s 2015 model white Ford Fiesta ST was hijacked as she was pulling into her Cassia Street home.
The very next day, Adel Stokes almost suffered the same fate when she was attacked on her Holmoak Road property.
In the first incident, Page told the GCN that she had returned home at about 7.15pm after shopping at Bedford Centre.
“While I was at Bedford Centre I was rushing to Pick n Pay when I realised I didn’t have my wallet, so I rushed back to my car to get it,” she said.
“When I returned to the centre I, for some reason, noticed a man in the complex.”
Then, as she was driving home, Page noticed a white Mercedes C200.
“It seemed to be going the same way as me, but then disappeared down Deutzia Road, so I didn’t really take much notice,” she added.
As she drove into her driveway she saw her husband, Shannon, walking to the gate to meet her.
“He was about half a metre away and when I looked again the Mercedes had pulled up in front of me and two men got out; I recognised the first man from Bedford Centre,” she said.”
The first man held a gun to the driver’s side of the car and Page jumped into the passenger side, but the second man was there.
Eventually she exited the vehicle on the driver’s side and started running towards the gate.
One of the men stopped her and asked her for the car keys.
“It is a keyless car so I told him they were in my handbag; by this time my husband was making a big noise and neighbours were rushing out of their homes and one pushed his panic button,” Page said.
The hijackers made off in the vehicle and Page’s tracking company and the Primrose police were called.
Her vehicle was recovered an hour later in the Germiston CBD.
In the second incident, Stokes had returned home at about 1pm, after collecting her four-year-old son, Jeandré, from school.
“She had already pulled into the property and parked her car and was getting out when a man held a gun to her head,” said her mother-in-law, Maria Stokes.
“He must have run in when the gate was closing, although we found that the electric fencing had been cut, so he might have climbed over there and waited in the garden.
“Luckily Adel was holding the keys very tightly in her hand and she managed to press the panic button on them.”
While this was going on at the front, Maria was hanging washing at the back of the house.
“As I came in I heard screaming and ran to the bedroom window to investigate,” she said.
“I saw a man pushing and pulling Adel around, so I shouted out of the window and then went out of the front door, still shouting.
“The man ran and jumped over the wall, through a cut piece in the electric fencing.”
The police and security company responded quickly to the complaint and Maria thanks them for this.
Both Maria and Page are warning residents to be vigilant and to be aware of their surroundings.
Maria said she had seen a suspicious-looking cream VW Chico and a silver and blue Mercedes in the area and Page mentioned a silver Mercedes, a box-shaped cream Toyota Corolla and the white Mercedes used in her hijacking.
“People must be vigilant and careful and take note of people and vehicles in their surroundings,” Page said.
Other crime stories:
CPF warns residents to be careful
Officers encouraged to double their efforts
