Estate agent speaks out after hijacking
The Durban North/Umhlanga Crisis Team member decided to tell her tale in the hopes that it would help others survive such an attack.
JOY Chiang, a member of the Durban North/Umhlanga Crisis Team, was forced to stare down the barrel of a gun last week, when she like many others before her fell victim to the spate of hijackings that has plagued the Greenwood Park and surrounding areas in recent months. The uMgeni Park resident has since decided to tell her tale in the hopes that it would help others survive such an attack.
Chiang, who is an estate agent was showing a prospective client a home on Clarendon Road in Parkhill on Thursday night when they were targeted.
“I had just finished showing her the property. We were standing outside by our vehicles discussing the terms when we saw a vehicle drive past. Although I was alert and checking my surroundings I did not find the vehicle suspicious. The next minute the same vehicle came speeding back up the road and suddenly slammed on the brakes in front of us,” she said.
“At first I thought that they might be looking for directions, however, when two of the suspects jumped out from the backseat and cocked their guns I realised what was going on,” she added.
The 46-year-old resident said the men immediately patted her down looking for weapons, and demanded they hand over their jewellery.
“They kept asking ‘where are the rings?’ But I was not wearing any jewellery. The woman I was with, however, was wearing a watch, and one of the suspects kept trying to rip the watch off her wrist,” she said.
The suspects took the women’s car keys, their cell phones, R1 300 and sped off with the client’s vehicle. “My car has the crisis and CPF logos on the back, so I think they probably thought I was with the police and left my car,” explained Chiang.
“My training as a trauma de-briefer has helped me cope with the incident, however my client, completely broke down as soon as the suspects were gone,” she said.
According to Chiang, this had been the woman’s second hijacking. In the first incident she had been mutilated by her assailants in Johannesburg, leaving her with over a dozen stitches.
Within 20 minutes Marshall Security had managed to retrieve Chiang’s cell phone as well as the hijacked vehicle. The suspects had discarded the phone along North Coast Road, after the tracking application had been activated, and the vehicle was found stripped and abandoned in Inanda.
It is suspected that the hijackers tried to locate and deactivate the tracker, but were unsuccessful.
