Athlone Park resident and her mother were hijacked outside their Spencer Road residence in broad daylight on Saturday, 13 February.
Bernadine and Kogie Pillay had returned home from shopping at noon in her Golf GTI when a vehicle jammed them in after she had reversed and was waiting for the gate to open.
“Three armed jumped out of a Hyundai i20,” said Bernadine. “I don’t think they followed me home. I suspect they had watched me for a while and knew I always reverse in.”
CCTV footage of the incident shows a greenish-coloured car drive past as they get to the gate. It turned around and reached their gate just as it started to open.
It looks like two armed men went to the driver’s door. It is not clear if the third man jumped out with them and cannot be seen by the angle of the camera, or if he was dropped off beforehand to keep watch. However, a man can be seen running across the driveway in front of the Golf before three men jump into the vehicle and drive off.
Kogie had the presence of mind to jump out with her handbag and run into the yard.
However, Bernadine’s handbag containing her wallet and about R5,000 worth of canteen stock were in the car.
She was struck on her right shoulder by one of the gunmen and her brother Benedict, who was in the garage, was threatened to not interfere.
The Hyundai is seen driving past again just as the men are getting into Bernadine’s Golf to drive off, made another turn and drove past the house a final time after the men had driven off.
The whole incident only took a minute and 10 seconds.
“The men were very young, in their 20s, and they were nervous,” said Bernadine.
Despite swift response from the CCPO, Toti SAPS, a police helicopter and a tracking device on the vehicle, it was not recovered by Wednesday afternoon.
