A rapidly growing South African courier business has expressed concern at the dramatic increase in the hijacking of their vehicles in Johannesburg.
It no longer comes as a shock when the operations manager of The Courier Guy, Stafford Parker, learns that one of his drivers has been hijacked as the scourge persists.
Read the initial article here: Unbranded courier vehicle hijacked in Witpoortjie
The Record attended the scene where one of the company’s unbranded vehicles was hijacked in Witpoortjie on General Pienaar Avenue, opposite the Spar on Friday, 4 May. Although the vehicle was recovered minutes after incident, the occupants were left reeling in shock as they made a statement to the police and also spoke to the journalist at the scene.
They alleged that one of them was held at gunpoint by four men who drove off in their Nissan NP 400. Parker confirmed recovery of the vehicle. “The vehicle was recovered next to Princess High School in Roodepoort,” he said.
Roodepoort Police spokesperson, Nonhlanhla Khumalo, indicated that the matter is still under investigation and no arrests have been made yet.
On the day of the incident, Parker said another vehicle was hijacked and a week later yet another was also hijacked, and neither has been recovered yet.
One of the occupants of the vehicle hijacked in Witpoortjie said the incident happened less than a month after another traumatic hijacking ordeal in which he was shoved inside the boot of a vehicle for almost four hours and dumped at an unknown location by the criminals, who then left with the car.
Also Read: Watch: Courier vehicle hijacked in Stormill
As this problem threatens the growth of the business, Parker said they’ve put security measure in place to try and decrease these cases. “We’ve gone as far as to get private security to be our eyes on the road. We also try our best every day to caution our drivers by texting them to be careful of hijackers,” he explained.
The targeting of courier vehicles is not something new in the Roodepoort area. Late last year, local security company BCI Security recovered an abandoned
courier vehicle off Peter Road after it was hijacked at a shopping centre in Zandspruit. All the stock that was in the back had been stolen.
Anyone with more information on the hijacking of courier vehicles can contact the police on 10111.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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