Woman fights off hijacker for dog
2007-12-16 20:35
Krugersdorp - You don't leave your child in the car when you're being hijacked.
That's why Marisia de Kramer fought tooth and nail to get her friend's miniature Yorkshire terrier, Princess Tiffany, out of the clutches of their hijackers.
It was all too much for the hijackers and in the confusion one of them fatally shot his accomplice.
It began when Marisia, 49, and her close friend Elize van Niekerk, 54, were on their way to Magaliesburg last Thursday, with pets Princess Tiffany and Princess Shirley, De Kramer's Yorkie. They stopped at the Laurentia farm stall near Krugersdorp.
Elize stayed in the car, and saw an armed man running towards them just as Marisia had climbed back in.
"We're being hijacked," was all that Elize had time to say. She grabbed both Princesses Tiffany and Shirley as the one hijacker tried to pull her out of the car.
The other hijacker pulled Marisia out, while Elize struggled to control the two frightened animals.
The robber pressed his gun to Elize's head and told her to shut up.
When he finally got her out of the car, both dogs jumped out of her arms - Princess Tiffany jumped right back into the vehicle and Princess Shirley ran off into the traffic.
Marisia realised that Princess Tiffany, who was between the two hijackers, had to be retrieved. So she jumped over the man in the passenger seat and tried to get Princess Tiffany out from under the legs of the driver.
The driver, who was caught unawares, jumped out and pointed his firearm at Marisia.
Hijacker shot
"As I raised my head with the dog, I was looking down the barrel of a pistol. I pushed the pistol out of the car, and a shot rang out. Shortly afterwards there was another shot, this time more muffled."
The man in the passenger seat suddenly jumped out of the vehicle and in the process he threw Marisia out as well. She thinks he'd already been wounded by then.
"He stared at me for a second with a funny expression in his eyes - something like disbelief. At was as if he couldn't believe all of this was happening because of a little dog," Marisia said.
Someone in another car started hooting and the hijackers sped off in a blue Golf.
That's when Marisia noticed drops of blood on her and Princess Tiffany: "I literally lost my plastic nails in the fight."
Meanwhile Princess Shirley had been rounded up a few metres away by two motorists, and was returned to her shocked "mom".
One of the two suspects, 32-year-old Godfrey Thabo Baloyi, died later in a Pretoria West hospital of his gunshot wound.
"May God have mercy on his soul," Marisia said at the weekend. She went for counselling, and took Princess Tiffany along with her.