Man held after kidnap hoax
2004-10-10 12:48
Durban - A 61-year-old Phoenix man was arrested on Saturday after he allegedly reported a false hijacking and kidnapping, Durban police said on Sunday.
Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said the man called his family after 20:00 on Friday night and allegedly told them he had been hijacked by two men and was being held in a dark room in an area he could not identify.
Naidoo said the man told his family that the hijackers were driving around in his vehicle. The man had left his Phoenix home earlier in the day to buy spares for his car.
Members from the Durban serious and violent crimes unit established that the man was being kept in the Wartburg area.
While on the way to Wartburg, police received a call from the family informing them that the man had broken free and he was in another house in Wartburg.
Naidoo said the man was later found and after being questioned it emerged that the hijacking and kidnapping was a hoax.
The man had given two men and a woman a lift to Wartburg for a fee and because it was too late to return home that night, he stayed at a friend's house.
Naidoo said an audit of the expenses that were incurred by police while looking for the man would be conducted and a civil claim would be instituted against him.
The man was released on a R1 000 bail on Saturday night.
- SAPA