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4x4 flattens hospital robber
21/06/2007 22:58 - (SA)
Christel Raubenheimer, Beeld
Pretoria - A visitor to a Gauteng hospital used his 4x4 to run down a gunman during an attempted cash heist - "It was him or me," he said.
Rudi Jansen van Vuren of Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal had barely warned his wife, Monami, about their visit to Gauteng when armed robbers struck in the parking area of Pretoria East Hospital.
"I told my wife we should be wide-awake: it looks kind of rough here."
Monami had been to see a doctor, and Rudi was waiting for her in the parking area.
He heard a woman screaming hysterically and saw a few men running.
He saw something in one man's arms and, judging from the screams, he thought it was a baby.
"It looked like a child to me and instinct just took over," he said. He gave chase in his 4x4 and stopped to pick up a security guard from Woodhill Golf Estate, to help catch the men.
Drew R28 000 from bank
"One of the gunmen pointed his firearm at me, so I drove over him. It was him or me.
"He had a cool drink in one hand and was changing it to his other hand before pointing the gun at me."
More security guards came to help and they kept an eye out for the two who had fled into the estate.
Meanwhile, Rudi had seen a police vehicle in the street and he drove to them to get reinforcements.
He said a passer-by had picked up the injured man's weapon and later handed it to the police.
Members of the flying squad, and Garsfontein and Brooklyn police arrested two suspected robbers in the estate.
Eugene van der Watt, whose wife, Jean, had been robbed, said she was not injured during the robbery.
She may have been followed to the hospital from a bank where she had drawn R28 000.
According to him, there were three men in the parking area and three more were waiting in a white car outside the parking area.
It was not clear if they also wanted to hijack her luxury vehicle.
By Thursday afternoon, the key to the vehicle was still missing.
Van der Watt said: "One man pointed a firearm at her and took her handbag."
"She began to scream and they ran away. Thank the Lord she wasn't injured."
The fleeing robbers shot at security guards and members of the public, but no one was hurt.
Her handbag was later found.
Seized two firearms
Police spokesperson Paul Ramaloko said all the money had been recovered.
The man who had been run over was taken to hospital for treatment because something in his pocket apparently had cut him.
The police also seized two firearms, both of which had had their serial numbers filed off.
Ramoloko said the police were investigating charges of attempted murder and armed robbery.
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