Mom's diamond targeted in mall
2005-08-04 10:24
Philip de Bruin
Johannesburg - "My ring! My ring! I must save my ring!" was the thought that flashed through Fiona Hanna's mind when two armed robbers came charging up her driveway.
As she saw them, she realised she was wearing her two-carat diamond ring worth about R100 000.
What she didn't realise, though, was that the robbers had already noticed her in the Northgate shopping centre - ring and all - and had followed her home.
Hanna, wife of well-known Gauteng businessman Victor Hanna, the big boss of the Video World Group, had just pulled up in her driveway when the robbers made their move.
She had her two children, aged five and 14, with her.
She said: "In a desperate attempt, I pulled the diamond ring from my finger and flung it to the back of the car.
"When the robber put his gun against my head his first words were: 'We want the ring'.
I also had been wearing an expensive tanzanite ring and started taking that off.
"But he wasn't interested. 'Not that ring. The big one. Hurry up, else I'll kill you,' he said."
He wanted the 'big ring'
"While the other robber kept his gun trained on my son and my little girl kept screaming hysterically, I maintained I had no other ring, but the robber kept saying we'd all die unless he got the big ring."
"That's when I asked him if I could get out and when I opened the back door, the ring lay on the floor."
"He shouted: 'Yes, that ring. Hand it over'.
"A getaway car had been waiting outside in the street and they took off with my diamond ring, my tanzanite ring, a chain and my car keys.
"I was so upset I took our second car and started hunting for them. All I wanted to do was crash into them or something.
"Obviously, the robbers saw me in the shopping centre with the ring and followed me home. How else would they have known about the diamond ring?"
Robbed twice and hijacked once
This robbery has been the third aimed at Hanna in the past year.
She's been robbed twice and hijacked once in her car.
Superintendent Chris Wilken of Johannesburg police said on Wednesday the police were aware of "a tendency in the northern suburbs" where women were robbed of jewellery at their homes after visits to shopping centres.
"We have compiled a special team and have arrested 17 people in this regard."
- Beeld