A Pinelands man has warned others to be careful when selling goods online after a phony buyer lured him into Crossroads where he was hijacked and assaulted.
The 41-year-old man, who does not want to be named as he fears for his safety, says he was contacted by a woman in her early 20s who expressed an interest in buying the laptop he advertised on Facebook Marketplace.
The woman asked him to deliver the laptop to Crossroads.
“I was concerned though we agreed to meet outside a nearby school around 4pm, and she came alone to collect the laptop.”
The woman was well dressed and well spoken, but the man got suspicious when she asked him to drive her to her home nearby as she had not brought the money for the laptop with her.
At the house, which the man describes as small with the facebrick walls of a carport under construction, he prepared to take the laptop out when four men in their 20s jumped him, one of them yelling, “Where is my laptop?”, as the woman ran off.
“One of the men took me out of my black VW Polo while the others were punching me and hitting me with a stick.”
He was hit on the head with a wrench and bundled into his car boot. He was forced to give the men his bank PIN and they drove around buying stuff while he was locked in the boot.
“While being driven around, I really thought that they were going to kill me.”
He found a screwdriver in the boot and used it to free himself as the car slowed down.
“When I jumped out, I just saw bushes, and I ran as fast as I could until I saw someone who could help.”
A Crossroads resident drove him to Pinelands, and he was treated for a cut to the back of his head at the Vincent Palotti hospital. He also had pains in his legs and bruises to his upper body.
On Saturday October 15, the day after the incident, he went to Pinelands police station to open a case but was told to do that at Nyanga police station. A Pinelands officer drove him to that station.
This was confirmed by Pinelands station commander Lieutenant Colonel Anton van der Berg.
When approached for comment, Nyanga police referred the Tatler to the provincial police office .
Provincial police spokesman Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi confirmed that Nyanga police were investigating a case of carjacking and kidnapping but no arrests had been made and the man’s car had not been recovered.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stop at 08600 10111.
The man warns anyone selling goods online to be very careful when dealing with strangers. “I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.”
He said he was still haunted by the incident and had taken time off work. “I feel really tense; the experience keeps on replaying in my head.”
