WO Peter Masooa of the police in Carletonville says the incident took place at the four-way stop on the N14 on 21 August.
A man in a bakkie drove towards the intersection at around 02:30 when he noticed a car behind him. The Golf 7 GTI was a marked police vehicle with a blue light. It overtook and stopped in front of him. Two police officers in full uniform got out. One of them stood at the car and the other walked towards the bakkie.
“We saw a suspicious vehicle following you,” the police officer told the driver.
The driver, grateful for the advice, told the police officers he would change his route and head towards Carletonville. When the police officers volunteered to escort him, however, he continued in his original direction.
Further along the route, the police officers pulled him off again. As he came to a standstill, he noticed a maroon car behind him.
One of the officers walked up to his window again, pulled out a firearm and held the barrel to his neck. He instructed the driver to get into the passenger seat and another man climbed in on the passenger side. The driver, sitting between the two, was forced to keep his head down.
The police officers, who turned out to be hijackers, later forced him into the boot of the maroon car and drove towards a farming area near Carletonville. Here, one of them stopped the car and instructed the victim to get out.
“Run and don’t look back,” they warned. Luckily for the victim, he managed to get a lift with a courier driver, who took him to the police in Carletonville.
The suspects fled with the bakkie, loaded with two off-road motorcycles – an orange KTM worth R80 000 and a blue Yamaha valued at R150 000 – and parts, the driver’s cell phone and money.