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'Houdini' found due to tracker
04/12/2006 11:34 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Annanias Mathe, the Mozambican prisoner who escaped from Pretoria's C-Max jail on November 18 was shot, wounded and arrested in Tembisa on the East Rand on Monday, police said.
Mathe was arrested after he stole a car fitted with a tracking device from a house at Craighall Park, national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
"The tracking device on the vehicle was activated and the tracking company started to follow the vehicle, assisted by a helicopter," said De Beer.
Mathe abandoned the vehicle in Tembisa and fled on foot.
An employee of the tracking company chased Mathe, who stabbed him in the face.
The employee then fired shots at Mathe, hitting him in the buttocks and legs.
"The perpetrator has been positively identified by police detectives as Annanias Mathe," said de Beer.
After Mathe's escape, reports said it appeared that the "Houdini" stripped and covered his entire body with petroleum jelly to climb out of a window measuring 20cm x 60cm.
Following his escape, two men, among them a reverend apparently resembling Mathe, were arrested and later freed.
Mathe faces 51 charges, including murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery, said De Beer.
- SAPA
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