WHEN two armed men approached Kaylene van Vuuren and her son on Tuesday afternoon, she knew she would have to fight to keep her son safe.
Just after 5pm, Van Vuuren had collected her two-year-old son from a crèche in Nyala Park, placed him in her car and was getting into the drivers’ seat when two men walked boldly up to her and demanded she hand over the keys.
She refused, fearing for her son who was strapped into his car seat.
‘The one tried to grab the keys and we struggled. I had the ring of the key around my finger and I just held on,’ she said.
Van Vuuren remembers only thinking about her son, and she did not want the attackers to take the car with him in it.
‘The one guy was quite big. He physically picked me up and removed me from my car. I could hear my son screaming, and I was screaming too,’ she said.
‘The other guy, who was smaller, kept telling the big guy to ‘shoot her, just shoot her’.’
Suddenly Van Vuuren heard a shot being fired, and her boy went quiet. At that moment, she feared the worst.
‘I remember thinking that they have shot him,’ she said. ‘I let him take the keys and rushed to the back of the car. I opened the door and I didn’t see
him or any blood.’ The attackers then sped off in Van Vuuren’s Mazda.
She described how frantic she was at that point because she did not know where her son was.
Not this child
Grieta Heymans, the crèche owners wife, was witness to the scene as the drama unfolded. However, she did not just stand by.
‘I didn’t think. I just moved. I couldn’t let them get away with the child,’ she said.
Heymans ran to the car, opened the back door, grabbed the boy and ran back to the crèche.
‘I was hoping the hijackers wouldn’t turn around and see me at the back of the car,’ she said. ‘As soon as I had him I just had to get away and get him to safety.’
As Heymans was running back, she heard the shot go off, and remembers her knees buckling.
‘I went numb. I thought they had shot her. I couldn’t believe it.’
The rescue was unknown to Van Vuuren, who only calmed down once Heymans informed her her boy was safely inside the crèche.
‘She is the reason my son is alive today,’ said Van Vuuren. ‘I can only thank her.’
Brazenly, the attackers returned to the scene to collect a cellphone which they had dropped. They even told Van Vuuren, ‘Do you want your car, come and take it’.
By this time a small crowd had gathered, as neighbours nearby came to investigate and help.
Tommy Chilcott rushed to the scene from his home nearby to assist after hearing the shot.
‘I have some first aid training, and thought I could help if someone had been shot,’ he said. While on the scene, he picked up the cellphone.
‘The guys came back in her car, pointed a gun at me and told me to give the phone back. I handed it over and they drove away.’
Van Vuuren expressed her thanks to all those who rushed over to help.
The vehicle was recovered later that evening near Mtubatuba, parked in bushes by the side of the road. The suspects had taken everything of value out
of the vehicle, including the car seat.
‘Just imagine what they would have done if my son was still in the seat?’ said Van Vuuren.
@kcowan23
