A Garnet Street resident has been left fearing for her safety after narrowly escaping being hijacked.
Speaking to the Laudium Sun, a still visibly shaken, Ameera Naidoo (34) said that she had been travelling on Quagga Road, from Wespark to Laudium, on Friday night, July 21, with her cousin, Sarusha Naidoo (25).
"It was just after 9pm when we left my cousin's home in Wespark and were approaching the Atteridgeville robots. When we stopped at the robot, we tried to keep vigilant by looking around for any suspicious characters, after reading in the Laudium Sun about robberies at robots. Suddenly, Sarusha, noticed a guy emerging from the bushes to the left of us but we assumed that he was just a harmless hobo! He quickly jumped over the barrier and when I looked at my right side-view mirror, I saw another guy stealthily approaching our car from the right!" related the distressed mother, in disbelief.
"I instantly figured that something was wrong, so I quickly put my car into gear and that's when Sarusha started screaming that the guy who had jumped out of the bushes, was carrying a gun! I was overcome with such shock and panic that I just took off even though the robot was still red, because I just knew that they were going to hijack us! We were so afraid that I sped straight to the Laudium Police Station to report the incident. They sent out a patrol van to scan the area immediately. I am so thankful to the Almighty that we narrowly escaped being hijacked, because I don't want to even think about what those guys could have done to us if they had gotten into our car," added a somewhat relieved Ameera.
"I decided to come to the Laudium Sun and share my story in the hopes of warning other motorists of the modus operandi used by these criminals who lay in wait for an easy target. It's highly possible that the criminals saw two females and probably thought to themselves that we would be an easy target," Ameera concluded.
The Laudium police confirmed the reported incident and added that residents should be vigilant when travelling on Quagga Road at night, as many similar incidents have been reported to date.
Ameera Naidoo, is still shaken after the incident.
The Quagga Road/Atteridgeville intersection where Ameera and her cousin, narrowly escaped being hijacked.