While a local hijacking and kidnapping victim André is slowly putting the traumatic ordeal behind him, he is grateful that his life was spared.
Owing to the involvement of various law-enforcement agencies, including private security, CarTrack and a techno-savvy friend, John Swanepoel, who traced his phone, André was located unharmed after a few hours of hell.
On the evening of Tuesday, 2 March, craving a flamed-grilled spicy chicken at a local Nando’s in Constantia Kloof left André with a bitter taste in his mouth when he was hijacked on the Drive-Thru by a brazen gang armed with semi-automatic rifles.
According to footage seen by the Northsider, André, who was driving a BMW X5, was ambushed by the gun-wielding thugs who apparently had followed him from Jim Fouche Road in Weltevreden Park.
During the ordeal, he was forced into the boot of the getaway vehicle where he bravely sent a WhatsApp message to his family who then alerted Beagle Watch, the police, Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) and CarTrack. This resulted in a huge search and rescue effort being launched.
With the help of CarTrack, the victim’s daughter and John utilised the Find my Phone device (now highly recommended) offered by Google and after a number of attempts they managed to trace the whereabouts of Andre’s phone. “Our teams, together with JMPD, police and other organisations set off in pursuit of the location of the phone in Soweto,” said André Aiton, Beagle Watch’s managing director.
Reliving the event, André told Northsider that he was blindfolded with his mask and taken to a back room in Soweto where they demanded his phone and banking cards. He said they demanded PIN codes and access to banking apps from which they transferred money to themselves and withdrew the rest from a number of ATMs.
His vehicle was dumped in Florida after he had told the criminals that it had a tracking device.
After they were done cleaning out his accounts, he said he was driven to a secluded area near Main Reef Road (Roodepoort) and dropped off. After midnight he managed to walk about 30 minutes to the nearest service station to get a cellphone and call his family.
A case of hijacking and kidnapping was initially opened at Fairland Police Station. Honeydew Police spokesperson Captain Balan Muthan said the case was transferred to them, and is under investigation.
Reflecting on the incident, Aiton praised André for his conduct during the life-threatening situation, saying he handled it like a pro. Lizo Songelwa, Beagle Watch manager on duty on the day also praised him for deleting WhatsApp texts after informing his family during the ordeal.
The victim’s advice to motorists is that should they find themselves in this unpredictable situation, “You need to comply with their requests, tell the truth and give them what they want.
“I’ve heard stories of other people who’d been assaulted or even killed, but I managed to walk away from it. All they did was curse at me once or twice but I was never assaulted,” he said.
With the rise in criminal activity across the board, Aiton, an expert in the field of security, has extended an invitation to his Crime Talk sessions which take place virtually and live. “We’ve been having this talk for a year now. The session is not limited to our clients only, but everyone in the community. The requirement to be part of these sessions is not money but the ability to listen, and go back home and train your family on the safety tips that we’ve touched on. You can check out the details about the next meeting on the Beagle Watch Facebook page,” he explained.
