Uber driver hijacked, forced into car boot in Waterfall
The car was found hidden in a bush in Molweni and three people were arrested.
AN UBER driver who was called out to pick up passengers in Waterfall was hijacked and forced into the boot of his vehicle on Monday, 7 November.
Hillcrest SAPS communications officer, Cst Ndumiso Manqele said the driver picked up two men on the main road near the Watercrest Mall.
“One passenger said he was going to Durban, but wanted to fetch something from his house first and the driver drove towards the direction they gave him. The driver realised that there was something wrong and he then pressed the panic button. The C-track agent kept phoning him and the driver cut the calls. They stopped at a house in Crestholme and both men pulled out guns and pointed it at the driver and instructed him to get into the boot,” said Cst Manqele.
“The driver told police that he could hear the men’s conversation and they were speaking to someone on the phone asking where the tracker was. The men managed to find the tracker and ripped it out without knowing that the car was fitted with two trackers,” he said.
“The driver’s phone rang again and one of the men answered the call and told the agent that everything was okay, but failed to provide his name and his cellphone number,” added Cst Manqele.
“The agent picked up that something was wrong and dispatched the recovery unit. The hijackers removed the driver from the boot and told him to run.”
“The driver bumped into some people who were fishing in a river in lower Molweni and asked them to contact the police. C-track discovered the vehicle hidden in the nearby bushes. As the police and members of C-track got closer to the bush, the two hijackers and a third man who was driving a white KIA Rio arrived to fetch the car and they were arrested,” said Cst Manqele.
According to Cst Manqele, it was discovered that the KIA Rio was hired at a company in Durban. It has since been linked to two other house robbery cases, one in Mpangeni and other in Westville. It is believed that these men are linked to the murder of Paresh Bodalia, who was shot in the head on Saturday, 5 November.
A case of hijacking is being investigated by the Hillcrest SAPS. The men have been detained at the Hillcrest SAPS and are expected to appear in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court soon.
