SECUNDA – A 15-year-old boy was robbed and nearly abducted in Generaal de Wet Street on Sunday, 4 March.
Ethan Venter was walking home from the shop at the Reddige Plaza (Palms) at about 4.40pm when he noticed he was being trailed by an emerald green VW Polo.
He was within a stones throw from his home, when the three men in the Polo pulled up behind him.
The man in the back seat jumped out, tackled Ethan to the ground and wrestled him for his cell phone.
As Ethan staggered towards his home, the passenger in the front grabbed him and tried to pull him into the vehicle.
Although Ethan is skinny for his age, he resisted his attackers with all his might by clinging to the doorframe of the car.
By this time the man who robbed him also clung to the teen while the driver of the vehicle stepped on the petrol.
Ethan was dragged about 100m before they eventually let go of him.
He flagged down a white Golf and asked the driver to chase after the Polo.
“I don’t think that man even knows where we live, but he rushed after the attackers,” said Ms Chantal Venter, Ethan’s mother.
“We will be thankful if he can contact us with any information.”
Ms Venter heard her son come into the house yelling that he had been robbed, but she reeled with shock when she saw him.
“Ethan was bleeding and was badly shaken. We rushed him to Teksdok and then reported the attack to the police,” said Ms Venter.
Ethan sustained numerous scrapes and bruises to the back, arms and legs, and a severe gash to the left knee.
Ms Venter now warns other parents and children to be vigilant. “Beware these thugs. We are still wondering if robbery was their only motive, or did they have more sinister plans for my child? I thank God my eight-year-old son decided not to accompany his brother to the shop, because he is not as strong as Ethan to fight off those men.”
Ethan described his assailants as coloured men in their 20’s.
They are all slim and the driver has a goatee.
Anyone with information about the identity or whereabouts of the suspects, must phone the Secunda Police at 017 624 2000.
