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Durban – A Malvern man is counting his lucky stars after he escaped from hijackers who held him hostage for an hour on Wednesday while they drove around Durban before letting him go on the M19 near Westville.
Aldrin Samuel, 44, was on his way to buy cigarettes when a car behind him started flashing its lights.
At a stop street, a neatly dressed man got out of the car and came towards him, asking for directions to the Industrial Park in Stellawood.
While talking to the man, his passenger window was smashed. “I was still in shock when the first guy snatched the key and switched off the car.”
Samuel was bundled out of his car and moved to the robbers’ red Polo. There they asked him if his car had a tracker, which it did not.
“During the whole incident, not once did I try to retaliate. I tried to stay calm… I must have said every prayer under the sun,” he said on Thursday.
The three men, all armed, then dropped him off and told him to run or they would shoot.
“I’ve never run so fast before,” he said. Samuel made it to the Reservoir Hills Shell garage where he raised the alarm.
“The police arrived about five to 10 minutes later.”
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said a hijacking case was being investigated at the Malvern police station but no arrests had been made. The vehicle has not been recovered.
Hernus Vermeulen, from the security firm Matrix, warned drivers to to be aware and check if they were being followed.
“If you feel unsure or unsafe, drive to your closest police station and hoot when getting close to it,” he said.
The Mercury
