Durban – A police stake-out on the rooftop parking at the Pavilion shopping mall in Westville saw a hijacker cornered and arrested this week after he was chased by policemen and shoppers as he tried to escape in a stolen bakkie.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane confirmed that the 32-year-old man appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. He was charged with possession of an unlicensed gun and car theft. His three accomplices escaped.
The drama started just after dark on Monday when shopper Stella Stewart was waiting to be fetched by her husband, James.
“I was about to give the car guard money when I saw a group of armed men chasing a bakkie that drove past me at speed,” she said. “I dived to the ground and covered my head.”
The car guard, she said, was just as stunned and also hit the deck.
A police source said the bakkie had been parked by the thieves after it had been hijacked in Pinetown at 1.30pm on Monday. It had been left to “cool off”, which thieves did to see if a tracking device would alert authorities.
The security company Tracker found the bakkie and tipped off police, who lay-in-wait for the hijackers to collect their booty.
“Policemen were dressed in civilian clothes and drove unmarked cars,” a police source said.
After a wait of several hours, the police’s patience was rewarded when they saw a man approach the bakkie. He climbed in and tried to drive off when he saw the police, but he did not get very far as there was a queue to get out of the parking. The police moved quickly, circling the bakkie, and arrested the man.
He was found in possession of an unlicensed gun.
Apparently, the man had been picked up on the mall’s CCTV arriving in the rooftop parking in a red car with three other men. He had climbed out with another man and approached the bakkie to drive it off. During the chase the man’s accomplice escaped while the men waiting in their getaway car disappeared.
Stewart said the police’s work was “excellent”, especially as no one was hurt.
Tracker spokesman Gareth Crooker said it was “common” for thieves to leave stolen vehicles at shopping malls or other public venues while they waited to see if a tracker was installed.
Crooker said Tracker had worked with the police on a “variety of operations that had led to numerous arrests”. The police did not get enough credit for solving cases that involved “highly sophisticated crime syndicates”, he said.
The Mercury
