Man allegedly robbed, nearly kidnapped after night out in Pretoria

A Garsfontein man has claimed he was robbed and nearly kidnapped in Hatfield some distance away from a police roadblock, he told Pretoria East Rekord.

On Friday, 21 February, Giancarlo Groenewald was walking from a night out in the heart of student life in Hatfield on Duxbury Road, “when a tall dark individual came fast-paced behind me”.

“He pulled a small-caliber gun and placed it squarely in my face. I hadn’t noticed, but a car that just went blissfully through that very same roadblock, parked right next to me with an open door and four other individuals waiting with open arms to receive me,” he said.

“I knew that if I got into that car they’d have even more fun than what I was looking for, and so I began to scuffle and make as much noise as possible so that the cops, who were not 50m away, would hear my cries for help.

“At that point, it was difficult to fathom my predicament. But I can with certainty say I went from ‘I am fine and at peace’, to survival mode in five seconds.”

He said after what seemed an eternity, the attacker took his cell phone, climbed into the car and sped off.

Groenewald memorised the number plate of the car and approached the police roadblock with the information.

“I said ‘officer I need your help, I have just been held at gunpoint and robbed of my possessions’. I even detailed the vehicle and gave the plate number but the response I got was something I thought I would never hear from an officer’s lips. Someone whose duty is to uphold the law in our great nation,” he said.

“Do you know what he said to me? ‘You’re drunk, go home’.”

Groenewald said he stood at the roadblock for 10 minutes pleading for the officers to give chase, but they stood around stopped two more cars, and only after 15 minutes decided to chase after the alleged armed attackers.

“I was then told to go to the police station and ask them to view the cameras to see if they can get a description. Sadly, when I went to Hatfield police station, I was met with laughter and no ounce of duty to the cause.

“I was told to call an Uber and go home and I should open a case in the morning since they were all too busy looking through a cellphone magazine for themselves.”

Without a cellphone to request an Uber, Groenewald asked if the police would take him home in Garsfontein, fearing that if he walked home he could be attacked again.

“It was not the greatest ride but I took it because there was no other way apart from trying to walk home and take another chance of getting kidnapped or worse.”

Police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach said no person can be shown away from any police station.

She said it sometimes happened that complainants did not have all the information available for the police to open a case.

“Then the police can still open the docket in the meantime and request the complainant to provide them with outstanding information as soon as possible for the investigation to start,” she said.

“When a cellphone is stolen or robbed the SAPS need the cellphone’s identification number (IMEI) to investigate the case. The network provider can provide you with an IMEI number.”

She said crime can be reported at any police station.

“If the crime occurred in another policing precinct, the SAPS will transfer the docket to the relevant station.”

Street lights in the area remained a problem, with the Tshwane metro having put R97 million aside to “light up” the city.

Former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa admitted that most crimes in the city were committed in the dark, prompting the metro to work on improving lighting.

Areas such as Hatfield, Muckleneuk and Arcadia were said to be in need of urgent intervention.

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