The Midrand Reporter wrote about a man who was robbed of his Rolex watch and car keys in an attempted hijacking incident which took place on 7 May.
The article, Rolex gang hits Carlswald, Week ending 18 May, refers.
The man, who spoke with Midrand Reporter, said that he was upset over the manner in which Midrand police and the Metro police handled his case. He asked not to be named out of fear the criminals would target him again.
“One minute after the men attempted to hijack me at the robots at the intersection of 5th Street and Harry Galaun Drive, a Metro police vehicle drove past. I flagged down the Metro police officers to assist me. I even showed them the shell casings from the shots the criminals had fired on the scene,” said the man, who alleged that the shell casings fell into the Metro police vehicle as he was explaining the incident to the women, but they drove away with this evidence.
“The two female officers were so unsympathetic and refused to give me any assistance.”
He said the Midrand police arrived at his house three hours after the incident to record the crime. He later reported the alleged ill-treatment by the Metro police officers, allegedly giving Metro police the vehicle registration number of the officers involved, but claims he has received no response to his complaints.
He recounted the incident of his attempted hijacking to Midrand Reporter. “My wife and I were driving back from a Midrand mall, where we had purchased curtains and curtain rails when we stopped at the traffic light at the corner of 5th Street and Harry Galaun. There were two cars in front of me and the first car made a U-turn and blocked me in the opposite lane so I could not get out.
“We heard knocking on our windows and there were four men surrounding our car. The two men on my side were armed and demanded that I get out of my vehicle and get on my knees in the middle of the road.”
He said the criminals fired a warning shot into the front tyre of his car and he heard one man shouting, ‘Take the watch’.
He claimed the men took his Rolex watch, valued at around R200 000 and forced his wife, who was still in the back seat of the car, to hand over the car keys. “Because it took her a long time to lean forward and give them the keys, they got confused and ran off into one of their vehicles and left.”
He suspects the criminals spotted his watch while he was at a local mall and followed him from there.
“I have lost trust in the police after having this case and many others reported at Midrand and never solved. They have not bothered to contact any of the witnesses either, which makes me upset.”
Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said that a complaint was received at the Midrand Police Station regarding this incident and was investigated. “Nothing untoward was discovered regarding the behaviour of the officers on the scene. The officers requested that the man reported the crime at the Midrand Police Station as soon as possible. There were no shell casings found in their vehicle.”
Spokesperson for Midrand Police Station, Sergeant Matome Tlamela claimed the complainant had received information from the investigating officer on a regular basis in relation to this case. “He complained a lot about previous cases but could not provide me with his case numbers so I could not follow up. I suggest that he logs a formal complaint with the Midrand police and the matter will then be investigated.”
