Hijackers drag man for 2km
2007-10-11 10:23
Una Cupido and Leon-Ben Lamprecht
Cape Town - A 44-year-old man whose car was hijacked was dragged about two kilometres behind the vehicle.
He was seriously injured.
Alderick Nicholls was overpowered by four men after he dropped off his son at Boston Primary School at about 08:00.
When Die Burger visited him in a hospital in Cape Town he was in serious pain and could hardly talk.
"My son was about 10m away from me when the men overpowered me and jumped into the bakkie, while he was watching," said Nicholls from his hospital bed. "I pleaded with them to take the bakkie."
'They knew I was stuck'
He managed to jump out of the double cab Isuzu bakkie, but his foot got entangled in the safety belt. "They raced away, knowing that my foot was stuck. I thought these things only happened in the movies."
He said he turned on both sides to prevent one side from being injured too much.
He was dragged from Gladstone Avenue to the DF Malan High School in Frans Conradie Avenue, about 2km further.
Parents who had pursued the hijackers, cornered them and the attackers fled on foot. They were still at large.
According to the police the four men first broke into a house in Lincoln Street opposite the primary school.
The 70-year-old owner was threatened with a firearm and robbed of cash, clothes and goods to the value of R3 000. "They tied him up, but he managed to escape and shouted for help," said police spokesperson senior superintendent Billy Jones.
According to Johann Zaayman, the principal of the primary school, the suspects then tried to hijack the car of a mother who had dropped her child at school, but the key broke off in the ignition.
They then hijacked Nicholls's bakkie and raced away.
Nicholls, a father of three, is the chairperson of the school's governing body.
"He has been elected as chairperson for the third term. It's a very gentle family," said Zaayman.
About 20 learners from Grade 1 to 5 watched the drama.
"The children saw the victim's bloodied body and wanted to know if the criminals would return," said a counsellor.